A Second Chance
by Riku Uzumaki
Summary: What if a small bit of Xion managed to survive after her fateful battle with Roxas? Watch as Kingdom Hearts itself gives Xion a second chance at life, and this time, she has a heart! Majority of story takes place in an altered KHII.
1. Xion's Awakening

**Xion: So, this is a story all about me?**

**Author: Yep!**

**Xion: Sweet!**

**Author: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix does… lucky ducks…**

* * *

Chapter 1

Xion's Awakening

"Ungh… where am I" Xion asked nobody in particular while she got up from the ground that she can't even see.

Xion looked around at her surroundings and saw nothing but darkness. Having nothing to do but wander around, she did just that.

'_Weird… I thought that since I was simply a puppet made from Sora's memories, I would have just simply returned to him and would then see whatever he sees… Wait… I don't remember anything from Sora's past now! Only what I experienced… what does this mean? Is there a part of me that's actually all my own and not something else?'_ Xion thought as she wandered further into the darkness, hoping for a way out. In her mind, she'd accept either light or darkness, so long as she'd at least have something to accompany her.

Starting to get bored, Xion decided to call out into the darkness and ask as loud as she could, "Is there anyone here?" Her voice echoed.

Her question was answered by the appearance of a large orb of soft light in the distance. Xion immediately ran towards it, hoping to at least have her questions answered. When she reached the light she expected it to be blinding and hard to look at, but instead it was soft and easy to look into. When she looked into it all she saw was more light.

Xion stood in wonder of what she found, and since there was a source of light she chose to take the time to see what she looked like when she found a puddle of water by the light. Her face still looked the same; her eyes were still blue and her hair was still short and black, all in all, a black haired version of Kairi. She was however, no longer wearing an organization cloak, she was instead, wearing an un-zippered bright orange vest that reached down to her waist with a black t-shirt underneath, she was also wearing long dark blue pants that stopped at her ankles and black sneakers. Personally, Xion didn't have a problem with what she was wearing, but she was wondering how she got the clothes and how it got on her, but she chose to deem the question pointless and dropped it.

She was now curious about the floating orb of light and asked it and not really expecting an answer "What are you?"

"**I'm not sure, I have always been"** the orb responded in a deep, yet at the same time, gentle voice.

"What?! Y-you can talk?!" Xion said in surprise.

"**Yes I can"** the orb answered.

"A-are you… Kingdom Hearts?"

"**Possible, I do feel compassion for all things that possess a heart"**

"Then why would you want to talk to me? It's not like I have one… I'm a nobody"

"**Not exactly, a nobody is a being that's left behind after a being loses his heart and becomes a heartless. You however, are a being formed from the memories of a person with a very strong heart. You were also slowly, but surely creating your own heart through the use of the memories that you obtained before you died. What you are now, is what's left behind after those memories returned to the Keyblade Master Sora"** Kingdom Hearts explained.

"So what's going to happen to me now? If what you say is true, then the heart I was creating is still incomplete. Meaning that I still shouldn't be worth your time…"

"**Oh, but you are… you see, I am intrigued by how strong your heart would be if I allowed it to become complete. This is your choice however, you can either continue drifting through nothingness for the rest of eternity in its security where everything will be certain, or… **(A door appears next to Xion)** you use this door to enter the Station of Awakening and begin finish the completion of your own heart."**

Xion immediately reached for the door and said, "Heh, this seems like a boring place to stay anyway."

"**Well said Xion"** Kingdom Hearts said before Xion finished walking through the door.

* * *

When Xion exited the door she found herself on a platform that looked like a circular stained glass window. On it were patterns of all sorts, the main parts of it however was a picture of Sora leaning against nothing while holding his Keyblade with his eyes closed as if he were asleep. It also had four smaller pictures surrounding the bigger one, one had a picture of Donald, and another was Goofy, then Kairi, and then finally Riku.

Xion however, only recognized Riku because of her encounters with him; the others were unknown to her because she no longer had any memories of them. Xion then noticed three pedestals rising from the ground and saw on one of them was a sword, another was a shield, and the last one was a wizard's wand.

"**It is time for you to start the completion of your heart. Start by choosing which one of these items would resemble you the most; it will also determine the path you will take."**

'_I don't know what he means by this…but I might as well start'_ Xion thought.

Xion walked to the center of the stained glass-like platform and decided to walk towards the shield. She thought about it for a bit before grabbing it and hearing Kingdom Hearts's voice again.

"**The path of a guardian, the kindness to protect friends, and the shield to repel evil… but is this truly important?"**

"I'll go with this one" Xion decided.

"**You have made your decision, remember that you can't go back on it now…"**

Once the voice was done talking, the floor shattered like glass, and Xion fell, only to land on another platform almost exactly like the last one, the only thing different was the color.

"**Remember… sometimes you will be forced to fight the darkness trying to destroy the balance between light and dark. Now's your chance to test your power to see if you are worthy enough to protect something."**

When Kingdom Hearts's voice was done speaking, a group of Shadow heartless appeared and attacked. Xion defended with her newly acquired shield and struck back by backhanding the Shadow with her shield, destroying the heartless. The others vanished after the first one was destroyed.

"**Well done, but remember, the darkness will continue to try to taint your heart, but do not despair… so long as you focus on the light and continue to move towards it. It will not overtake you, but it will still try because the closer you get to the light, the larger a shadow you will cast…"**

Xion turned around and saw that her shadow stretched farther than it should. Then something weirder than she thought possible happened, a Darkside heartless appeared out of her shadow to face her.

"**Now's the time to prove the strength of your heart…"**

"Huh? What do you mean? Isn't it still incomplete?" Xion asked.

"**So you'd think, I've been completing it for you ever since you walked through that door. I assure you, it is complete now. Feel the emotions running through you and use it to conquer your dark side…"**

Xion did a back flip to escape a shockwave creating punch, and then bashed the hand away with her shield.

'_What are these feelings rushing through me now? This isn't just an adrenaline rush, I get that all the time whenever I fight… am… am I actually afraid I might lose this fight and fall into the darkness?'_ Xion thought as she avoided blasts of darkness shot from the Darkside's heart shaped hole in its chest.

'_I… I think I'm actually worried that I might lose… but I'm also determined to win! I will not back down from this challenge! I have chosen the path of a protector, so that means that I have to win if I'm going to have anything to protect later! I. WILL. WIN!'_

And with Xion's burst of determination, she rushed forward and rammed her shield in the Darkside's face and sent it falling along with her onto another platform further down, damaging it severely, but still not enough to finish it off.

Xion wasn't done yet though, Xion got off of the floor first and rammed her shield at it again, causing it to fall back until it fell off of the platform.

"**Well done, but it still isn't enough yet. Your heart is strong, but unless you can use your inner light, the darkness will not even leave you alone for even a minute…"**

Xion turned around to see the Darkside rising out of her shadow again. Xion stepped back and tried to escape, only to see that she was trapped on the platform and cornered. The Darkside took advantage of that and reached out to grab her, but Xion wasn't going to go willingly. Xion fought back by ramming her shield into the Darkside's hand, but to no avail. The Darkside now had a strong grip on Xion and brought her to its face and looked like it was going to seep its own darkness into her. Xion struggled until she remembered something Kingdom Hearts said, _**'the darkness will continue to try to taint your heart, but do not despair… so long as you focus on the light and continue to move towards it. It will not overtake you.'**_

Upon remembering that, Xion focused on the untainted light within her heart and managed to bring it to the surface just long enough to momentarily blind the Darkside. The light she emitted may have only come out in a flash, but on the inside, Xion's inner light was awakened and ready to be used. Xion decided to test her new power and focused some energy into her free hand, and once the energy was gathered, she released it and shot a blast of white fire at the Darkside, causing it to recoil.

"This… is awesome!" Xion remarked at her newfound power while looking at her left hand that still had some residual white fire on it.

Xion looked back up and saw that the Darkside was preparing to shoot some more dark blasts out of the hole in its chest at her, but Xion was prepared for it this time. Right before the Darkside could fire a blast; Xion fired a blast of white fire at the hole in the Darkside's chest and caused the two powers to overload each other and explode in a flash of light, destroying the heartless.

"**Well done, you have unlocked a special power that was dormant in your heart. The power to control light and repel darkness, the attack you just used is known as holy fire. Use it well…"**

"Alright then… now what do I do next?" Xion asked.

Her question was answered by stain glass-like steps appearing out of nowhere, leading to a soft light.

"I guess I'll just go where these stairs take me…"

* * *

Xion scaled the flight of stairs until she reached the light and walked right through it, only to see that she was now standing on water and her back was now to the light she walked through. She also noticed that her shield is no longer with her (She's now in the heartless home world, also known as "The End of the World").

"**If you are to truly gain the power of a guardian, you will have to strengthen your heart through battle with the darkness and unlock the other dormant power within your heart… the power to wield the Keyblade and defeat your personal darkness once and for all"**

"So… I have to re-learn how to use the Keyblade all over again… and all I have to go on right now is my holy fire since my shield is now gone… but then again, things have never been easy for me before, so why start now?" Xion said before walking away from the light and across the endless sea of darkness.

It didn't take long for the heartless to notice her presence and attack, the first one was a Behemoth and charged at her relentlessly. Xion countered the charge with a blast of holy fire at the horn, stunning it and knocking it down briefly. The Behemoth got up quickly and started to charge power into its horn, Xion countered by firing another blast of holy fire at the horn, causing the powers to overload each other and explode and greatly damage the Behemoth, but not destroy it. The Behemoth got up again and this time, charged at Xion with its horn parallel to Xion, intent on stabbing her.

Xion reacted instinctively and charged power into her right hand, sidestepped the Behemoth, and made a slashing motion at the horn while jumping out of the way at the same time. What surprised Xion was that the Behemoth now crying out in pain and was dissipating. She then looked at her right hand and noticed that she was now holding a blade of pure light.

"This… is amazing! If I'm able to do this now, then maybe I'm almost able to summon a Keyblade again!" Xion said, starting to get excited.

Xion waited for a moment, expecting Kingdom Hearts to throw its own two cents in, but was disappointed by its lack of response.

"I guess I'm on my own for now…" Xion said, continuing her trek across the sea of darkness. Along the way, she battled all sorts of heartless of different shapes and sizes, ranging from your average Shadow, to the sturdy and annoying Invisibles. Each and every one of them were taken care of by blasts of holy fire and slashes from her blade of light. After dealing with an almost innumerable amount of heartless, Xion found what looked like a cave and was now walking towards it. Before she reached it however, she saw her shadow start stretching again, just like in the Station of Awakening.

"**Now's the time for your final test, to test your light against your own darkness and see if you are worthy of becoming a protector of the weak, a true guardian, put together everything you have learned up to this point and use it to conquer your inner darkness."**

The now fully formed Darkside reached out at Xion in an attempt at grabbing her, however, it was in vain because Xion leaped out of the way and fired a blast of holy fire at the Darkside's head and made a direct hit. The Darkside was however, unfazed and punched the ground and created a shockwave that sent Xion tumbling backwards. She wasn't going to take that lying down though, Xion then created her blade of light and slashed at the Darkside's left hand and caused darkness to bleed out of it in the form of Shadow heartless, and when Xion slashed at the Shadows, it just reformed and attacked Xion again, only to be slashed at and forced to reform again. This pattern continued until there were too many Shadow heartless to count separating Xion and the Darkside heartless.

Xion was now starting to get tired and there seemed to be no end to the enemies, there was now an army of Shadow heartless ready to tear her new heart out at any second in front of the Darkside.

'_This is really bad… I've really gotten myself into a pickle haven't I?'_ Xion thought while sweating.

All the Shadows then jumped at her at once, and having no other options, Xion held her hands out defensively and was forced onto the ground by the heartless. The heartless then started to drag her into the darkness, and Xion started to give up hope, but then remembered her friends Axel and Roxas. Using the memories of her friends as her drive, she got back up and pushed the heartless off of her and when another one jumped at her, she made a slashing motion at it and when she tried to summon her blade of light, she instead summoned a gold hilted Keyblade with a gold colored hand guard that was shaped like wings, and the blade was pure white and thicker than the blade of the kingdom key Keyblade, it was also pointed at the end, and the teeth of the Keyblade was shaped downwards in the form of two more smaller wings, and its key chain was silver with what looked like a yellow sun at the bottom of the chain.

The heartless then attacked again with renewed vigor, except this time, when Xion slashed at them with her Keyblade, they were destroyed and stayed destroyed.

"You're not going to keep me down! It doesn't matter how many of you there are, I will carve a path of radiance straight through you all and destroy your leader!" Xion cried out.

"Time for round two!"

Xion then bolted through the ranks of Shadow heartless and slashed through any heartless foolish enough to get in her way. When Xion reached the Darkside that was the source of all the heartless she had to fight, she dodged a blast of dark energy and leaped onto its knee, and then used that leverage to leap onto its arm, and then used that to jump above its head and slashed downwards. Xion's Keyblade cut through the Darkside like a hot knife through warm butter, her Keyblade cut through the heartless's head and then its chest, the final part of the cut finished the cut and cleaved the heartless in two, causing it to disperse into darkness and take its Shadow offspring with it.

The fight was finally over and Xion was completely spent. She sank to her knees and sat down, choosing to use this spare time to rest.

"**Well done Xion, you have conquered your inner darkness and will never have to worry about falling under the influence of the dark ever again."**

"Well what do I do now? By all means it looks like I'm stuck here" Xion pointed out.

"**Just focus on the light and choose a location you wish to go to, you will then open a light portal, you belong to the realm of light now, so that means that you can now travel through it whenever you wish."**

"So this pretty much works just like opening dark portals?"

"…"

"I'll take that as a yes" Xion extended her hand out and did as she was instructed to do earlier; she focused on the light and imagined the world her second recon mission was on, Hollow Bastion.

When Xion was done, she saw a portal of light appear right before her eyes.

"Wow! This is incredible! I totally rock now!" Xion said.

"**There are a few things I should warn you about before you return to the outside world Xion"**

"And what would that be?"

"**The starting point of your second chance at life will be at the same time you were created as an experiment, so it would be best for you to avoid contact with Organization XIII until Sora awakens"**

"Well that's a letdown… but I guess it can't be helped. Will I… be able to hear your voice again?" Xion asked.

"**No, you're on your own from here on in, this is your second chance at life, use it well"**

"I will" Xion said while nodding and walked through the light portal to the start of her second chance.

* * *

**Author: And that's the end of chapter 1!**

**Xion: You do realize that the only thing I had a decent conversation with for the entire chapter was Kingdom Hearts itself right?**

**Author: Yep! But don't worry because you'll be joining Leon and his group next chapter!**

**Xion: I suppose that's something to look forward to, so who will I run into first?**

**Author: Yuffie**

**Xion: Oooookay, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing…**

**Author: You'll just have to wait until next chapter, Yuffie! You've got the last line of this after note**

**Yuffie: Yay! Please review or I'm gonna give you a taste of Pain-a-la-Yuffie!**

**Xion: I have a bad feeling about this…**


	2. A New Home

**Yuffie: Yay! The Grand Ninja Yuffie is going to be making an appearance now!!!**

**Author: Yes, we know, will you give it a rest already?**

**Yuffie: (Continues hyper antics)**

**Xion: I don't think she heard you…**

**Author: Yeah… she does kinda zone out when she gets hyper…**

**Yuffie: The author does not own the Grand Ninja Yuffie! Or anything else Kingdom Hearts related in any way, shape, or form! Now if you excuse me, I have some heartless scum to destroy! Here I come you no-good, chicken-butted, heartless scum! (Runs off in the direction of a few heartless)**

**(A/N: If anyone who is reading this happens to be a fan of Fire Emblem, then I will inform you that yes, Xion's Keyblade is modeled after the Black Knight's sword Alondite, and if I choose to give her a second one, it will be modeled after Ragnell.)**

* * *

Chapter 2

A New Home

Xion exited her light portal and found herself in an area in Hollow Bastion known as the Dark Depths. Xion observed her surroundings and found no threats and decided that she could afford to let her guard down. Xion walked around for a bit and then found herself in a small cave full of crystals, she fully believed that the crystals were beautiful, yet at the same time, stiffened and brought her guard back up. The reason for that was because she felt like she was being watched…

And she is…

Yuffie, the self-proclaimed grand ninja was patrolling the outskirts of town for heartless in case of the possibility of an attack and saw a girl that looked startlingly similar to Kairi wandering around. The only thing that was truly different between Kairi and this girl was the fact that Kairi is a red-head and this girl has black hair. Yuffie had no idea who she was and what she was up to, so she did the one thing a ninja would do in a time like this, and that was follow the Kairi look-alike and spy on her.

Xion reached the doors of Hollow Bastion's Bailey, the entrance to town. Only to find the doors locked, hindering her access to town.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to use my master key…" Xion said while summoning her Keyblade, which by the way, she chose to name 'Path of Radiance', and using it to unlock the door, and after she was through the door Xion re-locked the door to make it look like she was never even there.

"There, now it looks like I was never even here" Xion said while pointing out the obvious.

Yuffie was still spying on her when she saw this, and needless to say, she was dumbfounded and speechless when she saw Xion summon and use a Keyblade.

'_Where did she get that? I thought that Sora was the only one with a Keyblade… Alright, I think it's time for a confrontation!' _Yuffie thought.

Yuffie then scaled the town wall and landed on the other side to wait for the newcomer to show up.

* * *

Xion was now walking through the town's streets, and still had that feeling in the back of her head that she was being followed and watched. She then turned around and fired a blast of holy fire at a Soldier heartless that was about to lunge at her and destroyed it instantly. Xion then heard the sound of something metal flying through the air and then saw boomerang shuriken lodge itself in the back of another Soldier heartless's head and destroyed it on the spot as well.

"You do realize that as long as you have that Keyblade of yours, the heartless will keep on following you right?" a voice asked as the shuriken returned to its wielder.

Xion looked up and saw a girl with black hair just as short as hers with a headband in it. She was also wearing a floral shirt with a vest over it with a hood that was down, tan short-shorts, and boots that reached her knees. (Yuffie in her outfit from KHII/Advent Children)

Xion then responded by saying, "Who are you and how did you know about my Keyblade?" (Xion does not know about Yuffie following her, what she sensed following her was the heartless. Ninjas like Yuffie are only sensed when they want to be found.)

"I'm glad you asked, I am the Grand Ninja Yuffie! Defeater of heartless and a member of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee", Yuffie announced while going through a series of odd poses.

"Nice to meet you Yuffie, I'm Xion… just Xion…" Xion said with a sheepish smile.

"By the way… how did you know about my Keyblade?" Xion asked.

"That's because I saw you unlock the front door to the town with it" Yuffie explained.

"Oh… I'm not in trouble am I?" Xion asked, not wanting to get in trouble after just arriving.

"Nope! Why would you be? What I wanna know is how you got your hands on a Keyblade. A Keyblade isn't exactly a common sight anywhere" Yuffie said.

"Oh, well… you see, it all happened when a large group of heartless attacked my world. I was caught by them and they started dragging me down into some dark portal. Then I heard some weird voice telling me to embrace the darkness and let it consume me, and being the somewhat defiant person I am I chose to do the complete opposite and focused on the light. When I did that I somehow summoned a Keyblade and managed to drive the heartless back enough to give myself some breathing room at least" Xion lied, _'There's no way she'll believe the real story, so the only way she'll believe any story I tell her is if I lie in a way big enough to actually be believable'_ Xion thought.

"Well that answers how you can use the Keyblade, but what about that white fire you used? I bet Merlin would love to know how to use it if he doesn't know already" Yuffie said.

"Who's Merlin?" Xion asked.

"He's a wizard, you know, a person that uses all sorts of magic for all sorts of things" Yuffie explained.

"Oh, well maybe he'll be able to all sorts of light based magic when I meet him" Xion said, hoping to learn how to use her light based powers better.

"Well let's find out!" Yuffie said while grabbing Xion's wrist and dragging her to Merlin's house, which was also the headquarters for the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee.

While Yuffie was dragging Xion, Xion was hopping on one leg trying to keep up and asked, "Do you have to drag me all the way there?!"

Yuffie stopped and let go of Xion's wrist, which caused Xion to fall flat on her face in a comical fashion, "whoops! Sorry Xion, I got a little excited there…" Yuffie said while smiling sheepishly.

Xion got up and brushed herself off and said, "It's alright, but are you always this hyper?"

"Yep! And it's because of my boundless supply of energy that the heartless around here have to stay on their toes at all times if they wish to stay alive!" Yuffie stated with her hands on her hips and her chest puffed out in pride.

"That's… good to know…" Xion said while sweat dropping.

"By the way you never really told me where you're from" Yuffie said.

'_Come on Xion, think fast! I really need to finish my cover story because there is no way I can tell them the truth. If I did I'd be given a one way trip to the wacky shack... a-ha! This might work!'_ "I don't really remember my home's name all that well, if it even had a name at all. It really wouldn't matter all that much anyway because the heartless probably destroyed what's left of it by now…" Xion lied in an expert way.

"Damn those heartless! Even after they've been reduced in numbers and given a sound spanking, they still refuse to stay down!" Yuffie cried out in anger.

"It's alright Yuffie, I'm pretty sure that everyone got off safely like me anyway. Besides, it's not like I had a family on my homeworld anyway."

"What are you saying? Are you saying that you're an orphan?"

"Mhmm, I never really had any friends there either, so I really don't feel any great loss at all, this is a fresh start on a new world in my case" Xion half-lied.

"It still sounds kinda sad to me…" Yuffie sniffed in supposed empathy.

"Well anyway, weren't you leading me to Merlin's place?" Xion asked rhetorically.

Yuffie immediately perked back up and said, "Oh! Yeah, you're right, well then let's go!" Yuffie then grabbed Xion's wrist and dragged her all the way to Merlin's place with Xion barely keeping up by hopping on one leg like she was doing earlier.

* * *

Leon was expecting today to be as boring as it was the day before, and the day before that, and so on. With Yuffie patrolling the town and being her hyperactive self, Cid working on his computer, Merlin complaining about Cid and his computer, Aerith trying to play peacemaker between the two grouchy men, Cloud brooding and avoiding Tifa, Tifa trying to find Cloud with little success, and himself trying to keep the group organized with only marginal success.

The day was pretty much as humdrum as usual… until Yuffie returned from her periodical patrol with a new friend. The odd thing about her friend that practically guaranteed that things were going to get interesting again at least for a little while, was not only because the newcomer looked like a black-haired Kairi, but also because she was able to wield a Keyblade. Her name is Xion, and by the looks of things… things were going to get interesting around here again... at least for a little while.

* * *

After Yuffie introduced Xion to everyone and explained the story Xion told her to everyone while Xion picked out a spare room. Aerith and Tifa immediately offered their condolences for the loss of her world, only for Xion to say that it wasn't necessary and narrowly dodge a girl's night out. Xion probably wouldn't mind going out on one on a later date, it's just that she didn't feel like going out on one at that very moment.

After a week of being with the group, Xion somehow managed to fit in with the group as if she was with them for her entire life, and after showing her abilities to Leon, she was made an honorary member of the Restoration Committee. Not only that, but she also got around to showing Merlin her abilities with light magic. Needless to say, Merlin was fascinated by her display of holy fire, light swords, and her use of light portals. After the display, and destroying almost all of the furniture in Merlin's attic, Merlin decided that to contact an old friend of his by the name of Yen Sid and tell him about Xion.

After contacting him, and piquing the aged sorcerer's interest. Merlin told Xion about Yen Sid and that if she chose to meet him, and have Yen Sid like her. She could take an apprenticeship under him and have him teach her how to master her abilities with light magic.

Needless to say, Xion was thrilled by this news and immediately said yes. Wanting to learn all she could about her powers, and how to master them.

"So when do we leave Merlin?" Xion asked.

"Whenever you want Xion, I can get us there in no time at all with a simple teleportation spell" Merlin said.

"You're leaving already Xion?" Yuffie asked wistfully. Xion may have only been with the group for a week, but Yuffie somehow managed to attach herself to Xion enough for them to practically consider each other sisters.

"I'm afraid so… I don't really want to leave, but this might be my only chance to learn how to fully master my powers. I'd be an idiot to pass this up" Xion said.

"Well if that's the case, you'd better be at least twice as strong as you are now when you get back, or I'll unleash a can of pain-a-la-Yuffie on your ass when you get back!"

"I'll keep that in mind Yuffie, and when I come back at least twice as strong… I'll make sure you'll be the one looking like an idiot!" Xion jabbed back.

"See ya everyone! Now let's get going Merlin, before Yuffie comes up with a comeback!" Xion said.

And with that, Xion and Merlin disappeared in a puff of magical smoke.

"Hey! Wait! I wasn't done coming up with a comeback yet!" Yuffie cried out.

Everyone in the room laughed at this before returning to their daily routine.

* * *

**Author: And that's the end of chapter 2!**

**Xion: So what am I going to learn at Yen Sid's?**

**Author: All sorts of things revolving around light magic. Mostly just light versions of Riku's abilities, and a few extra twists.**

**Xion: I'm sounding more awesome by the second… please, keep going.**

**Author: I'm also planning on having you learn how to use two Keyblades, and maybe throw in the Ultima spell.**

**Xion: Alright! Organization XIII better watch out! Because when I'm done with my training, I'm gonna give them an enormous helping of pain-a-la-Xion!**

**Author: You've been spending too much time with Yuffie haven't you?**

**Xion: Oh no! I've been Yuffified! How did this happen?!**

**Author: It probably happened because you've been spending too much time with Yuffie.**

**Xion: You're probably right… well, I should probably be cured of my Yuffification by the end of next chapter… Please review or I'll give you a large helping of pain-a-la-Xion!**

**Author: You really have been spending too much time with Yuffie…**


	3. Apprenticeship

**Author: I'm on a roll with this fic, although I probably should get around to working on some of my other fics soon.**

**Xion: Maybe you should, but personally, I don't care. More page time for me!**

**Author: You're still a little Yuffified aren't you?**

**Xion: Maybe a little…**

**Author: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, so get off of my back, and don't even think of threatening to sue me for making this fic! I'm not even getting paid to do this!**

* * *

Chapter 3

Apprenticeship

Merlin and Xion appeared in Master Yen Sid's office in a puff of magic. After looking around the office in fascination, Xion looked at the man behind the desk and noticed the aged sorcerer, and gave him a bow in respect, hoping to gain the sorcerer's favor as fast as possible.

"You don't need to do any of that Xion" Yen Sid said.

Xion immediately stopped and sheepishly smiled and scratched the back of her head and said, "Sorry, I thought you were the kind of person that kinda expected that kind of respect…"

"Well, I'll leave you two to get better acquainted now. I'll see you later Xion" Merlin said while disappearing in a puff of magical smoke.

"Wait! I don't even know if I've been accepted yet!" Xion pleaded while Merlin disappeared.

"Oh, but I already have…" Yen Sid said.

"Huh?" Xion was confused at this point.

"I already know your story Xion, your true story"

Xion's eyes widened in fear when she heard this, "H-how did you know?", Xion asked.

"I know because I know many things, your story, along with the fact that there are currently two of you in this universe right now is only two of many things that I know, but I do wonder how you came into possession of a heart when you originally started out without one. That's the only part of your story that I don't know… would you mind telling me?" Yen Sid asked.

"Of course" Xion then told Yen Sid her story about how she met Kingdom Hearts.

"That is quite a fascinating story, it would also explain you reappearing at the same time as your nobody's creation" Yen Sid said.

"Soooo, are you going to teach me about light magic?" Xion asked with her hopes up.

"I suppose I will, but be warned, the training will be rigorous. You may abandon your training at any time, but if you do… you will not be allowed to return. Are we clear on this?" Yen Sid grimly warned.

"Yes, and I promise that I will not leave until I have completed my training!" Xion proclaimed adamantly.

"Good, you will start with a display of what you currently know. Meet me outside of the tower" Yen Sid said while disappearing in a puff of magical smoke.

"Wait! How do I get down there?!" Xion asked a little too late. _'Well, I guess I'll just have to take the stairs and keep going down until I get there…'_

* * *

Once Xion climbed down a VERY long stair case that looked like it traveled through dimensions. Xion finally made it to the entrance to the tower and stepped outside to see Yen Sid waiting patiently with a very large variety of targets, mostly disposable furniture, but still targets none the less.

"I'm glad to see you finally found your way down the staircase, most people would still be finding their way down" Yen Sid remarked humorously.

"I would have gotten down here faster if you took me with you…"

"But if I did, then you wouldn't know your way around now would you?"

"Point taken…"

"Now then, I believe it's time for you to display what you currently know about light magic. You will start by hitting moving targets with whatever light spells and techniques you know. You start now" Yen Sid said while levitating the furniture. "Oh, and by the way, the furniture will be flying at you from time to time, so I highly suggest that you stay on your toes…"

Xion then dodged a sofa flying at her and shot holy fire at it after she narrowly avoided tripping over it in midair. She then sliced a hammock in half with her light swords, and then avoided a falling piano by dodging through a light corridor. Things generally just kept going in that order until Yen Sid ran out of furniture to throw at Xion.

"Well… my analysis is that while you may have mastered the use of holy fire and the light corridor, and you are able to create a light sword with your right arm, but have you ever tried creating two light swords at once?" Yen Sid asked.

"Oh, I never really thought about that… I guess that I was so used to just using one blade to fight, I never really thought about using two swords at once…"

"Then try it, I won't start teaching you anything else until you are able to summon two light swords at the same time" Yen Sid said.

"Okay, done!" Xion said with a sword of solid light in each hand (Xion summoned them while Yen Sid was instructing).

Yen Sid stood there dumbfounded by Xion's natural ability to use light magic and bend it to her will for a split second before regaining his composure and said, "Good, now let's head over to my library, I'm sure I have a few texts on light magic somewhere in there" Yen Sid said while escorting Xion back inside the tower, where Xion's lessons will officially begin…

**(A/N: I am not going to go into detail involving Xion's training or show you all that much of it due to the fact that constantly writing down Yen Sid's lectures will remind me too much of school and give me nightmares. So instead, most of my time describing Xion's time as Yen Sid's apprentice will be spent on missions given to her, and her free time)**

* * *

One Month later…

Xion changed at least a little bit in the past year physically. Her raven colored hair no longer just simply framed her head, it now reached down to her shoulders, and she had every intention of letting it grow for quite a while. She also now wore a dark blue cloak with a hood over her clothing that reached all the way down to her feet. Other than that, not much changed on the outside.

"You have come far in this past month Xion. You have already mastered the light barrier, and you can now use your holy fire to a greater degree, and your fighting ability with your light swords is above average to say the least. However, do not let this go to your head Xion, you still have much to learn, and you still have a long way to go before you are ready to take on the Organization, but you should be able to at least hold your own against them and escape when needed" Yen Sid said, reviewing Xion's accomplishments so far.

"So what's next Master?" Xion asked, showing her respect to her teacher by calling her teacher, 'Master.'

"The next thing you'll do is actually more of an assignment…"

"Like back when I was in the Organization?" Xion asked.

"Yes, similar, but the objective is more for training instead of hunting down and destroying heartless to harvest the hearts that they hold captive. Your objective is to go to Castle Oblivion and locate a few books that are located in its library and bring them back, many of them will be essential to your training because of the spells they hold within them" Yen Sid explained.

"What spell books are you looking for?"

"I am looking for the spell books that contain some of the most powerful light magics, the spells; Aura, Northswain's Glow, and Ultima that are located in a library somewhere in the basement floors of the castle. A secondary mission of yours is to make Riku's time in Castle Oblivion a little bit easier by helping him accept the dark power inside of him."

"Alright, so when do I leave, Master Yen Sid?"

"You may leave whenever you're ready, and I highly suggest that you allow anyone to see your face. It might make the Organization decide to put you on their hit list like they'll eventually put Riku on. One more thing, since the nobody Naminé, who has power over memories will be there. If you are discovered, the Organization might decide to force her to erase your memory, I'm going to place a memory protection spell on you so that if things really do get that out of hand, your memories will still be safe" Yen Sid informed.

"Thanks for the warning, just let me grab a sack and put that spell on me and I'll be off!" Xion said while grabbing a random sack out of the corner of the room. Yen Sid then shot a small blast of magical energy at Xion, resting in her head and heart, protecting her memories should they ever be targeted.

"Well, I'm off! Wish me luck!" Xion said while opening a light corridor to the basement entrance to Castle Oblivion.

"In all of my experiences I've learned that there's no such thing as luck" Yen Sid said, while copying a line from Star Wars Episode IV.

"Then wish me a safe return with all of my memories intact!" Xion said while disappearing through her light corridor.

'_That child never ceases to amaze me… she always seems to have an answer for every situation, no matter how dire. She also might not look like it, but she also seems to be wise beyond her years when it comes to the differences and similarities of light and darkness… I really have taught her well so far'_ the aged sorcerer mentally mused.

* * *

At Castle Oblivion…

"It seems like we have another intruder in our castle… and this one seems to be the opposite of Riku" Zexion said.

"How so?" Lexaeus asked.

"While Riku practically reeks of darkness, this one seems to be bathed in the light."

"What should we do concerning this one?"

"We should just observe what this one wants for the time being, if this intruder starts meddling with the Organization's plans, then we'll have to eliminate it. Now I believe you have to capture Riku now, don't disappoint me like Vexen did."

Lexaeus just grunted and walked off.

* * *

Xion was now in Castle Oblivion, however, she had absolutely no luck whatsoever finding the library that she came to find. Xion was now on the floor just below Riku and his battle with Lexaeus.

"Darn it! The library isn't on this floor either! I guess I'll just have to go up another floor…" Xion said exasperated, when she suddenly heard and felt a tremor coming from above.

"Whoa, what was that?" Xion asked nobody in particular when she regained her balance. "It sounded like it came from the next floor… maybe that was Riku fighting someone… he should be fine, but maybe I should lend a hand anyway…"

Xion then headed up to the next floor, and saw Lexaeus finish vanishing into nothingness. The other thing she saw was Riku on the floor with a black aura emitting from him.

"That doesn't look good… it looks like the darkness inside of him is trying to take over. Maybe I should help him out a little…" Xion said to herself while she walked over to him. Xion then put her hand on Riku's shoulder and peered into his heart to see what was happening.

_*Riku's Mindscape*_

"_**The darkness will help you Riku... open your heart to darkness… submit to it!"**__ Ansem said in an attempt to play puppet master with Riku again._

"_Go away! I'm not gonna let you control me again Ansem!" Riku shouted back furiously._

"_**But don't you want that power you had before? The power that only the darkness can grant? The power that only I can give you?"**_

"_Your power has nothing to offer Ansem! Go away!"_

"_**It looks like we'll have to do things the hard way then…"**__ Ansem was about to attack when a blast of light started to suppress him._

"_I think it's time I intervened…" Xion said while firing a ray of light at Ansem._

"_**Grr… Damned light user! You can't suppress me forever!"**_

"_I don't have to… I only have to push you back until Riku finally finds the correct path and then destroys you" Xion retorted._

_*Exit Mindscape*_

Back outside of Riku's mindscape, Xion let go of Riku and waited for him to reawaken, only for a hologram-like version of King Mickey to appear right before her.

'_Hmm, if I'm not mistaken… then that's King Mickey, Master Yen Sid's former apprentice. I wonder what he's doing here… or more like, what is he sending a portion of his power here for?' _Xion thought.

"Hmm, I came here to push Ansem's power in Riku back for a bit, but it looks like you beat me to it… who are you by the way?" the former apprentice of Yen Sid asked.

"That's not really important right now… Mickey right?" Xion asked, making sure she's talking to who she thinks she's talking to.

"That's right, but if you're not going to tell me who you are… could you at least tell me what you're doing here then?" Mickey asked.

"I'm really only here because Master Yen Sid needed me to retrieve a few books from the library somewhere in the basement of this castle, but the problem is that he didn't say what floor it was on! Only that it is located somewhere in the basement levels! Because of that, I now have to search every basement floor until I find it!"

"That does seem to be a problem… wait! Did you say you were sent by Master Yen Sid?"

"Yep! I'm actually his current apprentice, that's why I know at least a little about you since you were once his apprentice as well" Xion explained.

"I see…"

"Ungh…" was the noise Riku made when he was getting up.

"Well, look who's finally getting up, I thought you were going to sleep all day Riku" Xion said with a smirk barely visible under her hood.

"Who are you?" Riku said while still in a daze getting up.

"That's classified information!" Xion said while teasing Riku.

"Very funny…" Riku said sarcastically, then Riku saw Mickey right next to Xion, "oh, your majesty… you had to save me from Ansem again, didn't you…"

"Actually, that was this person right here that saved you" Mickey said while pointing to Xion.

"You pushed back Ansem?" Riku asked.

"Yes, but I can't exactly do it forever… you're going to have to face Ansem on your own sooner or later, and there's no way you'll be able to attain the power needed in time through the light. I doubt that you're even able to look straight at it at the moment" Xion said.

"Then how am I supposed to beat him?" Riku said, hoping Xion wasn't going to say what he thought that she was going to say.

"You're going to have to simply accept the power of the darkness and let it back into your heart."

"Not going to happen! I'm not going to give into the darkness again!" Riku replied vehemently.

"She didn't say you had to give into it Riku. She said that if you are going to face Ansem and win, you're going to have to accept the fact that you need the power of darkness on your side, but at the same time, prevent it from swallowing you" Mickey explained.

Riku looked down in thought at this, "I'll think about it… it is my power after all…"

Xion then walked past Riku and said while patting him on the shoulder, "Take all the time you need, but remember… there's a difference between accepting power, and giving into it…"

Xion then walked off to the next floor, seeing that what she was looking for wasn't on this floor either.

* * *

Xion STILL hasn't found the library yet and was really starting to get impatient, and a little angry.

"Where the hell is that stupid library?!" Xion snarled to herself.

Okay, scratch that… she's completely pissed off beyond all reason. Xion was now on the 11th floor in the basement and still no library. Xion was now pissed off and exhausted, so there was only one thing that she could do at a time like this, and that was to take a nap.

When Xion woke up, she saw Riku enter the floor she was on and stood up.

"You're still indecisive, aren't you Riku?" Xion asked rhetorically.

Riku just grunted and kept on walking toward the door on the other side of the room.

"Well you don't have to be so cold about it…" Xion said while walking towards the door as well. She then noticed that Riku was holding a card with a picture of an island on it.

"So that's one of those cards crafted from memory… I'm guessing that the island on that card is your home?"

"Yes, and I would prefer it if you stayed out of this one" Riku responded.

"Alright, alright! I won't go hopping through your memories! But you have only 1 hour, after that, I'm assuming that you need help and will then go in after you. Deal?"

"Deal" Riku and Xion shook on it. Riku then walked through the door and Xion waited for an hour. Once the hour was up, Xion opened the door and walked in, only to see Riku slay Zexion and then leave the floor, with Xion taking off after him.

Once Xion caught up, she spoke up, "Well, it looks like you've finally accepted the darkness… things should finally start to get easier for you!"

"Not yet… I still have to face Ansem and come out on top. If I don't, I'm counting on you to finish things up, even if it means that you have to destroy me…"

"Now don't start getting all gloomy and pessimistic Riku! I doubt that's like you at all! You are going to come out on top! Are we clear on this?" Xion said in an attempt to raise Riku's spirits.

"Hmm, I guess you're probably right about that… but just in case…"

"No just in case sayings! You are going to win and that's all there is to it! Now I suggest that you try to keep up with me!" Xion said while running ahead of him.

"What? Hey! You got a head start!" Riku proclaimed childishly.

"Blame your slow reaction time!" Xion teased from a few feet ahead.

* * *

Once Xion and Riku made it to the next floor, they were greeted by a solid Mickey, and an oddly dressed man that covered his face with red cloth and called himself DIZ. After explaining a few things and giving Riku another card, Riku went through the next door with Xion choosing to follow after a few minutes due to the lack of a library on the floor.

The memory world that Xion found herself in now was a memory world of Twilight Town. Just seeing the place brought back a lot of nostalgia to Xion, and seeing nothing else to do for the time being since this was more Riku's trial than hers… Xion decided to take a walk down memory lane.

Xion's first stop was the clock tower, where Xion's most precious memories of Axel and Roxas were spent. Xion sat down in the spot she normally sat at and just looked at the sunset for a bit, and then, even if it was only for a second, Xion could have sworn she saw Axel and Roxas right next to her eating ice cream. Xion then shook her head and cleared her thoughts.

'_No, those days are long gone… I'll never be able to re-experience them, but it does feel nice to pretend that they are here… even if it's only for a little bit…'_

Xion then looked up at the sky with her hood down and closed her eyes for a bit and indulged herself in her memories, only for them to be interrupted a few minutes later by the sound of somebody's footsteps. Fearing for her cover, Xion hastily put her hood back up and prepared herself for a fight. Then the person that was walking up to the top of the clock tower showed himself.

It was Axel…

"Well, well, well… if it isn't one of the many uninvited guests of Castle Oblivion… if I recall correctly, one of them is Riku, another is the king of Disney Castle, and another calls himself DIZ, but I have absolutely no idea who you are at all. So could you at least give me a name to call you?"

"Nope! As far as I'm concerned, you weren't supposed to see me. However, I highly suggest that you be careful of who you pick fights with in the near future, you might just get your ass handed to you" Xion warned.

"So you're saying I shouldn't pick a fight with you?"

"That's for you to decide…"

"Then I hope you enjoy dodging flames! BURN BABY!" Axel shouted out while firing his burning chakrams at Xion, only for her to flip over them and bring out her light swords while Axel re-summoned his chakrams. Axel then charged at Xion and swung his chakrams at Xion, only for Xion to block every swing Axel made at her. Xion then broke Axel's guard and delivered a spinning kick to his gut and sent him flying off of the clock tower. Xion then used a light corridor to get to the ground and saw Axel getting up in a shaky way.

"You have two choices now, you can either leave with your life, or fight me and disappear into nothingness. I highly suggest the first one because I'm pretty sure your friend back in the Organization would be devastated to the extent a nobody can experience devastation if you don't return alive" Xion said, hinting that she knows about Roxas.

Axel's eyes widened when she said that, _'How does she know about Roxas?! I have to report this and warn the Organization about this person!'_ Axel then regained his composure and said, "I'll take your word for it and go with choice number one…"

Axel then opened a dark corridor and left.

Xion then let out a sigh of relief and then thought, _'I think I got a little overconfident there… and now there's a good chance that I'm gonna have to be more careful from here on in because I'm pretty sure that Axel is going to tell Xemnas about me, and the fact that I know about Roxas.'_

Xion then took off in the direction of the mansion to catch up to Riku and look for the way to the next floor, which is also the only basement floor Xion hasn't checked yet. So by using the process of elimination Xion deduced that the library that had the spell books she was looking for had to be on that floor.

* * *

Xion met up with Riku, Mickey, and DIZ at the mansion and then exited the memory world to get to the 13th basement floor. When they entered the 13th floor, Xion was disappointed by the lack of a library, but then decided that it must be located further down the way. Xion's thoughts were then interrupted by Riku telling everyone not to interfere with his battle with Ansem. Xion then decided to then just simply wait before proceeding, choosing to stay on Riku's good side.

Xion had to wait for a good two hours before she heard an explosion at the far end of the 13th floor.

"Welp, it sounds like Riku's fight with Ansem is over, let's go see how he faired now and see if he needs any help" Mickey said.

"Finally! I was waiting for someone to suggest that! I was really getting bored waiting for Riku to finish up his battle against his darker side" Xion said, happy to finally continue her search for the three spell books she was sent to find.

After passing through a few rooms and examining each of them for what looked like a library, Xion's search efforts were finally rewarded when she reached the room that Riku and Ansem fought. However, when Xion first entered the room, she had to help Mickey help Riku out of the dark abyss Ansem put Riku in.

"Heh, thanks for getting me out of there you two…" Riku said in an exhausted voice.

"Think nothing of it Riku; we're your friends aren't we? We'll always be there to help you when you need it" Mickey said.

"Yeah…" Riku said.

When Xion and Mickey finally finished escorting Riku out of the abyss, they found themselves in the last room on the 13th basement floor, which just so happened to be the library. When Xion noticed this, she managed to restrain herself long enough to let go of Riku. It was after she was a few feet away from Riku that she finally lost all restraint and shouted out while jumping for joy, "FINALLY!!! I FINALLY FOUND THE LIBRARY IN THIS GOD-FORSAKEN CASTLE!!!"

Xion then took off for the light magic section and by using the alphabetized system, located the spells she was looking for in no time, and placed the books in the brown sack she brought with her. Once she had gathered what she was looking for, she bid farewell to Riku, Mickey, and DIZ and then took off through a light corridor she created.

"She seems like quite the enigma isn't she?" DIZ said to Mickey.

"Maybe so… but at least we know that she's on our side and the Organization's" Mickey responded.

"True, but I would like to have at least learned where she came from and what her goal is… we never even learned what her name is…" DIZ said while disappearing into thin air.

* * *

Xion exited her light corridor and found herself back in Yen Sid's office.

"Mission accomplished Master! I have the spell books right here" Xion said while pointing at the sack.

"Excellent, we will start your lessons again tomorrow. Now on the other hand, did anything noting happen?" Yen Sid asked.

"Well, let's see… I ran into some old friends and made a few new ones. One of them was your old apprentice Mickey. I also did all of that while maintaining my disguise, so that means that none of them know who I am, all they really know is that I'm an enigma that's adept with light magic" Xion reported.

"So, you ran into my old apprentice Mickey… how is he doing by the way?"

"He's doing pretty well, right now… I'm guessing he's helping Riku out with whatever he's doing right now" Xion guessed, "by the way, what am I going to start working on tomorrow?"

"I think I'll start you off on Aura, since it seems to be the least complex" Yen Sid said.

"Can I go to bed now? I'm really getting tired" Xion yawned.

"Yes, you're dismissed; I'll see you in the morning Xion."

Xion then left to her room to get some well deserved rest.

* * *

**Xion: I guess that now I'm supposed to explain what the spells I'll be learning do?**

**Author: I believe that the readers will appreciate it.**

**Xion: Alright… let's see… (Reads summary of spells)**

**Aura- Creates a barrier that repels status problem causing techniques such as poison, freezing, burn, sleep, and if used to a certain degree, it can even temporarily repel the underworld's curse in the Olympus Coliseum world. This technique will only last for approximately a half hour and does not dispel status problems if the user is already suffering from one. To repel the underworld's curse, Aura has to be applied BEFORE entering the underworld, Aura will not repel the curse when the user is already suffering from it.**

**Northswain's Glow- A powerful light magic that traps the target by surrounding it with beams of light. Once trapped, the target is heavily damaged by a powerful beam of light from below.**

**Ultima- The most powerful and deadly light magic, in short, it creates an explosion of light magic that heavily damages all targets within a 20 yard radius. (This does not damage the user in any way unless you count exhaustion.**

**Wow, I'm going to be so awesome when I master these!**

**Author: The only problem is that it's almost going to take a year for you to master them**

**Xion: Aww… that long?**

**Author: Yes, now go tell the readers to review and tell them the penalty of not reviewing.**

**Xion: Okay, please review, if you don't, I'll hit you with a blast my holy fire!**


	4. A Year Gone By

**Xion: So now there is going to be a time skip of some sort?**

**Author: Yep!**

**Xion: I'm going to have all of those spells mastered?**

**Author: Yep!**

**Xion: I. Am. Going. To. Be. AWESOME!!!**

**Author: Just say the disclaimer Xion…**

**Xion: The author does not own Kingdom Hearts in any way, shape, or form**

Chapter 4

A Year Gone By

Xion has been working her butt off mastering the three strongest light magics ever invented for the past year. Things didn't end there though, she also spent her spare time working on her own custom light spells and improving the spells that she already knows. The only new custom spell that she came up with so far was a javelin of light that she still needs to work on her aim on because last time she used it she accidently shortened Master Yen Sid's beard, earning a very stern glare and a week's worth of the cold shoulder from the aged wizard, and when it came to improving spells, let's just say that her holy fire can now be shot in rapid fire. Overall, all she really needs to finish mastering now is the Ultima spell. Let's watch and see how she's doing.

Yen Sid was writing something down on a piece of paper when he realized that things were a little too quiet around here. Normally by now, Xion would have caused another catastrophic explosion from another failed attempt at casting Ultima, and then it happened.

*BOOM!*

The entire tower shook from the explosion, causing Yen Sid's papers to fly everywhere and books to fall from the shelves in his office. Not only that, but Xion also crashed through a wall and then crashed into a bookcase, causing all of the books to fall on her, burying her alive in books. Xion then climbed out of the books staggering and said, "I'm okay!" while climbing back through the new hole in the wall to get back to the reinforced training room.

'_That child is either going to be one of the strongest Keyblade wielders in history… or the death of me… or maybe both…' _Master Yen Sid thought while casting a spell to repair all the damage Xion caused for the 7th time this month.

* * *

A month has passed since Xion's last mishap with the Ultima spell, it took a very long time, and Master Yen Sid even lost his eyebrows on more than one occasion from it, but Xion finally mastered the Ultima spell. At the cost of destroying the special training room so badly that it was destroyed completely beyond magical repair.

Xion has also changed even more on the outside as well, her raven black hair now reached down just below her shoulder blades and her clothes were now different as well. She still wore a black T-shirt below everything, but her vest was gone, a completely unzippered and pale orange jacket that reached down to her lower thigh took its place. Her pants were still a very dark blue and still reached down to her ankles, the only real difference was that there was now an orange stripe down the sides of her pants, and her sneakers were still black.

"Well Xion, I am glad to say that your training under me is complete. You may now go where you want and do as you wish, but be warned… once you leave here, there is a good chance that Organization XIII will be after you."

"I'm not worried about them! Bring 'em on!" Xion boldly proclaimed, feeling ready to take on the entire universe.

"Don't get overconfident Xion, remember, you may be a lot stronger than most warriors now, but you are still just a teenager and you still have many trials ahead of yourself. The Organization will probably only be one of many other trials that will be set before you."

"So you're saying that the Organization isn't the only enemy I'll have to face?" Xion asked.

"Yes, in fact, it seems that there are one or two forces in Hollow Bastion that exceed the power of the Organization. They are both far more clever and deadly than the Organization can ever hope to be…"

"That's cryptic… well one of them must be that Sephiroth person Cloud told me about, but I wonder what the other one is…" Xion pondered.

"I do not know the identity of the other one, all I really know is that the other enemy is not from this time and has once attempted to take over this timeline by possessing the body of someone with similar abilities from this timeline. The poor person had to be sealed away for the time being to prevent the enemy from gaining the upper hand, but that seal has been weakened from the time of darkness and will escape soon. I suggest that you keep an eye on Hollow Bastion and maybe brush up on some time magic for the time being."

"I'll keep that in mind… Oh! By the way, how long until my other me vanishes?" Xion asked

"Hmm, I'd say about 12 minutes" Master Yen Sid said while looking into his crystal ball.

"I guess I'd better get going then…"

"Try to keep in touch, I haven't gotten so much as a letter from Mickey for the past 7 years" Yen Sid grumbled.

"I'll think about it!" Xion said while jumping through her light corridor with the hood of her pale orange jacket up.

"Humph, kids these days, no respect…" the aged wizard grumbled.

* * *

Xion exited her light corridor and found herself in front of the mansion in Twilight Town. Memories of her fight with Axel in front of this mansion came back to her before she banished them from her mind and walked into the mansion. Xion never saw the inside of the mansion before, with the exception of the White Room that Naminé spent most of her time in, so she decided to take a look around.

Xion found one of the things that she hoped she would find on the ground floor, and that would be a library. Hoping that she could find a book or two on time magic, Xion decided to skim through the books and see what she could find.

* * *

"Riku, it seems that we have an uninvited guest" DIZ told his blindfolded compatriot.

"Should I show our guest the door?"

"No, I wish to meet her in person… I have a feeling that she is the same mysterious person from Castle Oblivion."

"You mean that cloaked girl that specialized in light magic?" Riku asked.

"The very same, I wish to ask her to help us in our mission to awaken Sora" DIZ explained.

"How do you think that she will be able to help, you need to be able to open dark corridors to get to the World that Never Was, and if I'm not mistaken, she was able to open _light_ corridors, not dark ones"

"That means that you'll just have to escort her when and if she agrees"

Riku just sighed as he left to look for the mansion's uninvited guest.

* * *

"This one looks like a winner!" Xion said as she skimmed through the tome of rather potent time magic. The spell itself was labeled, "Time Chain" and is designed to drag an invader from a different time period to the current time period. The spell however, is purely theoretical and has never been tested due to the fact that there has never been a time traveling incident to test it on. Xion then pocketed the book and opened a light corridor to the clock tower of Twilight Town, she wanted to visit it one last time before she returned to Hollow Bastion.

Right when Xion entered her light corridor and it began to close, the door to the room opened and Riku stepped in… just in time to see Xion leave.

'_Tch… now I'll have to track her down… it looked like she didn't put much power behind the corridor, so she might still be in town. I guess that means I'll have to take a look around then…'_

* * *

Xion arrived at the clock tower and decided to sit down and watch the sunset for a bit when she heard voices speaking down below. When Xion went to the ledge to take a look, she saw herself dying in Roxas's arms. Just watching this brought back a vivid flashback of how she died and what she said to Roxas.

_*Flashback*_

"_Who are you... again? It's weird, but I feel like I'm forgetting something really important" Roxas said while looking disoriented._

"_You'll be… better off now… Roxas" I said while collapsing._

_Roxas then knelt down, held me and asked, "Did I… do this to you?"_

_I then shook my head and said, "No. It was my choice… to go away now… better to do that then do nothing… and let Xemnas have his way… I belong with Sora… and now I'm going back… to be with him… Roxas… I need to ask you a favor… all those hearts that I've captured… Kingdom Hearts… set them free…"_

"_Kingdom Hearts… free them…" Roxas repeated._

_My body started to crystallize at that point as the crystallized parts of my body first felt like they caught fire and then went numb. I then said to Roxas, "It's too late… for me to undo my mistakes… but you can't let Xemnas… have Kingdom Hearts… you can't. Goodbye, Roxas… See you again. I'm glad that I got to meet you… Oh, and Axel too. Never forget, that's the truth…"_

_My body then started to crystallize at a faster pace, and the burning then numbing sensation climbed up to my face as my eyes closed. However, before death took me in, I heard Roxas cry out, "No! Xion! Who else will I have ice cream with?"_

_*End Flashback*_

Xion was now looking at the heartbreaking scene in tears, remembering what she went through to escape the Organization's grasp and try to return Sora's memories without sacrificing her life, hoping that she could awaken Sora and be with Roxas and Axel at the same time. All of that ending up being for nothing as she was forced to set her personal feelings aside and fight Roxas to the death, and hold back to make sure she would disappear and have all of Sora's memories return to him.

"Out of all the things I thought that I would see in life… I never expected that I would see my own death happen right before my eyes" Xion said to herself.

Xion watched the scene with tears streaming down her face until the other her was gone completely. Xion then scaled down the clock tower to meet with Roxas, she didn't have any intention of letting Roxas know who she is, but she couldn't just sit around while Roxas slowly loses his memory of her.

When Xion reached the bottom of the clock tower, Roxas was finally getting to his feet when Xion spoke up and said, "Was she a friend of yours?"

Roxas turned around and noticed a girl in an orange coat with a hood over her head. Roxas just simply said, "She was the best friend I ever had… and now she's gone…"

Tears were streaming down Roxas's eyes for reasons he couldn't understand now. This touched Xion and she then said, "Maybe I can help you hold onto your memories of her…"

Xion was planning to use the memory protection spell that she learned from Master Yen Sid a few months ago. If everything went well then Roxas would at least be able to hold onto his memories of her.

"What can you do?" Roxas asked, "My memories of her are slipping away by the second, and there isn't anything I can do about it."

"Maybe you can't, but I can. Please, just stay still for a second" Xion said while bringing her right hand to Roxas's forehead.

"What are you doing?" Roxas asked before he felt a slight tingling sensation in his head.

"Done, now you don't have to worry about losing your memories of her" Xion said.

"Thank you… but why did you help me? I'm just a nobody…"

"I suppose it's because memories are the only things nobodies really have that they can really consider precious, and it just wouldn't be right if I let the memories of your friend fade away" Xion replied.

"But why would you care about any of this? Xion was a nobody and I am too! Why would you care about any of this?!"

Xion closed her eyes and started walking away with a few tears working their way to the surface, but before she left, she answered Roxas's question by saying, "I suppose it's because at one point in my life… I was a nobody too…"

Xion was then out of sight, leaving Roxas on his own. Roxas then decided to push the orange coated stranger to the back of his mind and focused on Xion's last wish. Roxas then put his hood up and opened a dark corridor to the World that Never Was, planning on setting Kingdom Hearts free.

* * *

Xion was walking aimlessly through the streets of Twilight Town when she felt a familiar presence walking up to her from behind. Xion decided to let him know that she knows that he's there.

"You can come out now Riku, I know you're there" Xion said, waiting for Riku to come out from the shadows.

"Good to know that your senses are still sharp" Riku replied while leaving the shadows.

"What do you want? I'm guessing that this isn't a social visit" Xion asked.

"You're right… I'm here because DIZ asked me to ask you for your assistance. You see, while the memories that Xion accidently absorbed may be returning to Sora as we speak. It still isn't enough to reawaken him, some of Sora's memories; some of the most important ones that are essential to waking him up are in Roxas. We need to capture him and have Naminé extract them and put them back in Sora" Riku explained.

"And where do I come into play here?" Xion asked.

"Roxas is currently returning to the World that Never Was, I don't know what he's planning, but if we have any hope of capturing him then it has to be done quickly before the Organization shows up."

"So you want me to hold off any Organization members that show up while you fight Roxas?" Xion deduced.

"Yes"

"… Alright… I'll do it… but I won't take any pride in this. I'll only do this because it needs to be done, and because what Roxas is planning is on the borderline of suicide."

"Thanks, I appreciate the help" Riku replied.

Xion stayed silent for a bit until Riku let out a gasp and clutched his head for a split second. Xion, suddenly feeling worried about Riku asked, "Riku, are you alright?"

Riku then staggered to his feet and said, "It's just something I expected to happen since Xion died… since she was basically memories given form, it's only expected that people will slowly forget about her once she dies…"

"Do you want to remember her?" Xion asked.

"She was almost a friend of mine, of course I want to remember her" Riku replied.

"Then hold still for just a second" Xion requested while putting the palm of her right hand up to Riku's forehead.

"What are yo-"

"Be quiet and let me concentrate Riku!" Xion hissed, Riku kept quiet after that.

After a few seconds passed, Xion removed her hand from Riku's forehead and said, "Okay, I'm finished."

Riku then stood up and asked, "What exactly did you do anyway?"

Xion then replied by saying, "What? Didn't you notice that some of your memories have stopped disappearing?"

Riku thought for a moment and then noticed that his memories of Xion weren't disappearing anymore.

"How did you-"

Riku was then interrupted again when Xion said, "As much as I would like to explain how I casted a memory protection spell. Now isn't exactly the time, so could you kindly open a portal to the World that Never Was? I can't because that world is too close to the darkness for me to use my light corridors."

"Oh… right" Riku dumbly replied, still a little shaken by what Xion just did.

Riku then opened a dark corridor to the Nobody Homeworld so that they could complete their mission before it was too late.

* * *

**Xion: Do I get to fight any Organization members in the next chapter?**

**Author: Yes, it be boring if you didn't**

**Xion: Who's butt do I get to kick?**

**Author: I am currently deciding between Axel and Saïx**

**Xion: I hope it's Saïx because I think it's high time that I got some payback on that sadist!**

**Author: I'll keep that in mind… anyway, please review by clicking on the enchanted green button that's labeled 'Review this Story / Chapter'**


	5. Puppet No More

**Author: I have decided on who gets his butt kicked!**

**Xion: Really?! Who?**

**Author: I have decided that Saïx gets his butt kicked!**

**Xion: Awesome!!! I'm happy now!**

**Author: Good now say the disclaimer**

**Xion: This is getting repetitive… when is somebody else going to do this instead?!**

**Author: All in good time… now say it!**

**Xion:*Sigh* Riku Uzumaki does not own Kingdom Hearts…**

**Author: That also means that Square Enix has no right to sue me! They wouldn't gain much anyway!**

**(A/N: Just because I feel like it, if you feel like adding music to the fights, I suggest the Riku Final Boss theme from 358/2 Days for the Saïx fight.)**

* * *

Chapter 5

Puppet No More

"So, I guess we just have to wait until Roxas shows up…" Xion said to Riku at the top of Memory's Skyscraper.

"When he does show up, leave him to me, there's a good chance that the fight will attract an Organization member or two. They'll be your problem when and if they show up" Riku replied.

"Good, I'd really rather not fight him…" Xion said in a melancholy tone.

"I won't ask for your reasons, but I think that it's time to get moving, Roxas is here, and it looks like an Organization member is approaching as well" Riku said while pointing in the direction of the entrance of the Castle that Never Was.

Xion looked at the direction Riku was pointing at and saw her opponent, Saïx. _'Ohhh, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this!'_ Xion thought with a sadistic grin on her face.

"That grin on your face is starting to scare me" Riku commented while looking at what little he could see of her face. "You're still not going to tell me who you are, aren't you?"

Xion just gave Riku a sweet smile and said, "I'm surprised that you were even able to see the expression on my face since you have that blindfold on."

"I peeked under it to see if you had that hood of yours removed, and it wasn't" Riku replied while Xion removed her hood.

"Well why don't you look now?" Xion said while grinning from ear to ear, choosing now to finally reveal herself.

Riku peeked underneath his blindfold again and gasped in surprise, "X-Xion? Is that you?"

"Yes, but now isn't exactly the time for my life story, I have a sadist to beat to a bloody pulp, and you have a job to complete" Xion remarked, choosing to get serious right now.

"You're right, time isn't on our side right now…" Riku said while looking back in the direction of Roxas while Xion jumped off of the skyscraper in the direction of Saïx.

* * *

Xion landed a good few feet away from Saïx and stared him down with a very serious look on her face.

"Humph, well it looks like the puppet survived somehow… you only have one chance here, come back to the Organization, or be reduced to nothingness" the cross scared nobody demanded.

Xion just smirked defiantly and said, "I choose neither, the reason is because I can't choose either because only a nobody can make those choices, and in case you haven't noticed yet… I have a heart now, which means I'm no longer a nobody!"

Saïx just scoffed at this and said, "Whether what you say is true or not means nothing to me, you are an enemy of the Organization and must be eliminated. This shouldn't take very long at all, after all, you were a mere puppet then, and even after all this time… you're still just a puppet."

"If that's the case…", Xion then summoned the white and gold Path of Radiance Keyblade and held it in a one-handed grip at waist height with her right hand, and positioned her left side towards her opponent with her left foot two feet away from her right foot, and she also held her left hand out in front of her in the 'come hither' position. Xion then finished her sentence after getting into her battle position by saying, "then it's time for this puppet to break free from her strings!"

"You can try… but the end result will still be the same you useless puppet!" Saïx roared in nonexistent anger while charging at Xion in a berserker rage.

"I'm not a puppet anymore!" Xion shouted out while charging at Saïx with an intense ferocity that can only be achieved by someone who can truly experience rage.

Saïx summoned his claymore during his charge and then swung it at Xion. Only for Xion to duck under it, spin while in a crouching position, and then jump upwards and deliver a brutal slashing blow to Saïx's chin. Xion didn't end the barrage there though; she then jumped again as soon as she landed on the ground and delivered a slashing barrage that sent Saïx even further up into the air. It still didn't end there though; Xion then charged both of her hands with holy fire and then shot a relentless barrage of holy fire at Saïx while he was in mid-air, causing Saïx to be grievously injured within the first few seconds of the fight when he landed with a painfully loud thump on the ground.

"Impressive… your powers have indeed grown… but it still isn't enough… puppet" Saïx gasped out, still believing that Xion didn't have the power to defeat him. Saïx then started to levitate while holding his claymore up high in the air, and then called out, "Moon shine down!"

Saïx was now surrounded by a light blue aura, and then descended back down to the ground and then charged at Xion with amazing speed while swinging his claymore, barely leaving Xion enough time to use her Keyblade to block the berserker's blow. Saïx didn't stop his berserker rampage however, instead, he just kept on swinging his claymore viciously at Xion while constantly closing the distance between the two, forcing Xion to constantly jump backwards and parry each blow with her Keyblade.

After playing about a minute of cat and mouse with Saïx, Xion decided that she was done with being on the defensive and chose to dive forwards instead of jumping backwards, so that she could grab Saïx by the legs and caused the blue haired berserker to fall onto his face while Xion jumped back onto her feet. Things didn't end there for Xion though, she then made her left hand and Keyblade glow, and she then plunged the Keyblade into the ground, causing thin beams of light to sprout out around Saïx, imprisoning him in a prison of light. Saïx was now back on his feet and then asked, "What is this for, you can't keep me locked in this forever you know, that makes your technique useless because I can just use this time to rest and regain my energy."

"I'm not trying to keep you locked up you idiot! I just need to keep you in place for 3 more seconds, and then it'll be all over for you" Xion retorted.

"What are you talking about?"

"This! Northswain's Glow!!!" Xion shouted out while slamming her left palm onto the ground, channeling a large amount of light magic into the attack, causing an enormous beam of light to shoot out from underneath Saïx's feet, bathing him in a massive amount of light, while at the same time, delivering a near fatal wound to Saïx.

Saïx was speechless from the sheer power of the attack, he could barely move and was lying face down on the ground, gasping for breath and glaring at Xion whenever he had enough strength to look upwards.

Xion was now slowly walking towards the fallen Organization member slowly in the rain with her Keyblade at the ready in case he managed to catch a second wind. Saïx then managed to gasp out, "How is this possible? To be defeated by a mere puppet?"

"I thought that I already told you, I am a puppet no more! I'm my own person with my own heart! I guide my own actions, and I refuse to allow you precious Organization take away my newfound freedom!" Xion proclaimed.

"Don't you dare think that you've seen the last of me… you silly little puppet! The Organization's chains on you are stronger than you think… heart or no heart… you'll still be our puppet dancing by our… strings' command… whether you like it or not" Saïx cryptically proclaimed while he opened a dark portal around him so he could quickly escape.

Xion then stood there for a minute before speaking up to no one in particular and said, "You're wrong… I've broken free from my chains a long time ago, and did the same with my strings… my reality is mine alone…"

Xion then heard someone clapping slowly from behind her, causing her to immediately get into a defensive position in case the person was hostile. However, when she was done turning around, she saw Axel leaning against a wall, slowly applauding Xion's performance.

"That was quite an impressive monologue Xion, but I gotta ask… how exactly did you get your hands on a heart anyway? And somehow end up in two places at once since you couldn't be at Castle Oblivion and on a mission to who knows where at the same time." Axel asked.

"It's a long story, but the short summary is that when I died, what was left of me that didn't return to Sora came into contact with Kingdom Hearts itself. Kingdom Hearts gave me a second chance at life, and a heart of my own, and sent me back in time, thus answering the two places at once thing" Xion said, answering Axel's question.

"So in other words… you got lucky" Axel said.

"Pretty much" Xion responded while walking up to Axel and placing her right hand on Axel's forehead.

"What are you doing Xion?" Axel asked.

"Keeping your memories safe, I figured that you might want to remember me from back when both of us were in the Organization with Roxas since everyone seems to be slowly forgetting about me unless I use a memory protection spell on them… there done!" Xion said while safely securing Axel's memories.

"Well that's all fine and dandy, but you do realize that because I'm currently on duty, I have to try to stand in your way Xion" Axel said while summoning his chakrams.

"If that's the case, then I guess I'll have to run you over Axel" Xion said while moving at full speed, appearing behind Axel in an instant, and then delivering a brutal haymaker to the back of his head, knocking Axel unconscious.

"Sorry Axel, but I can't let you stand in my way… please, try to understand…" Xion said while turning her back and walking away in the rain.

* * *

Xion returned to the base of Memory's Skyscraper and saw a transformed Riku standing a few feet away from an unconscious Roxas.

"I guess its mission accomplished" Xion said in an unenthusiastic voice.

"You both did well, now I believe it's time to go now you two" DIZ said while opening a dark portal.

Riku chose to remain silent the whole time while Xion chose to keep a pensive look on her face. Xion didn't know if DIZ remembered her or not, but quite frankly, she didn't really care because she was not a fan of how he treats nobodies.

Riku then carried the unconscious Roxas through the dark portal after DIZ, and then Xion followed.

* * *

Once the group left the dark portal, Xion found herself in a computer room where DIZ was already at the computer, while Riku put Roxas underneath a strange device.

"What's that weird device for DIZ?" Xion asked.

"That device is going to send Roxas to a digital copy of Twilight Town, where we can keep a close eye on him without worrying about him running off while we transfer the rest of Sora's memories back to him" DIZ explained.

"I guess that makes sense" Xion said.

"I also plan on sending Riku and myself there as well, do you wish to go too? We could use your help" DIZ asked.

"No thanks, I plan on returning to Hollow Bastion after getting a good look at Sora. I don't know why, but something seems to be drawing me to him right now for some reason… weird"

"Alright then… I can't force you to do anything, so do as you wish Xion" DIZ said.

"Thank you for respecting my decision" Xion said while walking off in the direction of the pod rooms.

* * *

Xion was now in the room that has the pod that contains Sora's sleeping form. Xion just stared at the pod for a moment before walking towards it and then stopping so that she could get a good look at Sora.

"Still sleeping like a rock, eh Sora? You better wake up soon sleepyhead, because I can't save the world by myself and neither can Riku. I'm pretty sure that Kairi would be thrilled to see you again too" Xion said to an unresponsive Sora while putting her hand on the pod.

"I still don't know what's calling me to you right now… it's really weird… it's almost like something… important is going to happen soon, and I'm supposed to be present for it to happen…" Xion thought out loud, and then the 'important thing' happened.

Sora started to glow for a moment, and then a glowing orb shot out of Sora at an incredible speed and lodged itself into Xion.

Xion yelped out in surprise as she was flung back a few feet and landed on her rump. Xion then moaned in mild pain as she got back onto her feet and immediately ran back to the computer room to check on Sora's status and make sure that whatever happened didn't affect seriously.

When she reached the computer room, she realized that both DIZ and Riku were already gone, so she could only assume that they both already went to the digital Twilight Town. Fortunately however, Sora's status was already on the screen, so Xion checked it and let out a sigh of relief when she saw that Sora was perfectly fine and that weird pulse of energy did not affect him at all.

Xion then started to ponder what exactly happened back there, and what that strange light was, and then after thinking about it for a good five minutes, Xion concluded that there was no point in trying to figure out what happened and just let things fall where they may.

'_I need some ice cream…'_ Xion thought as she exited the mansion.

* * *

Xion was now sitting at the top of Twilight Town's clock tower with two bars of ice cream. Since she was no longer a nobody, she realized early on that she was able to eat a lot more than just one thing a day, and she loved it because now she was able to eat more ice cream.

She was about to dig in when she heard a familiar voice say, "That haymaker to the head really hurt you know."

Xion then turned around to see Axel rubbing the back of his head with a disgruntled look on his face.

"Well, if you didn't stand in my way, then we wouldn't be having this problem now would we?" Xion retorted.

Axel then sat down next to her and started munching on the bar of ice cream he bought earlier, "Well, I suppose that I can consider us even, since I beat you up and knocked you out twice, and you beat me up twice as well…" Axel said in-between bites.

"I guess so…" Xion replied before returning to her ice cream.

"By the way, why do you have two ice cream bars here? I've never seen you eat more than one before" Axel asked.

"That was back when I was a nobody, and apparently, nobodies can only eat one thing a day. While people with hearts on the other hand, can eat a whole bunch of things in one day, and I figured that since I have a heart now, and I never really got the chance before. Why not eat more than one bar of ice cream in one day?"

"Tch, lucky… I wish I still had my heart… then I would be able to re-experience something like that… instead, all I have are my memories" Axel replied.

"Heh, sucks to be you huh Axel?" Xion teased.

"Hey! Don't tease me!" Axel cried out indignantly while Xion giggled at Axel's reaction.

The two friends then finished their ice cream in silence while watching the sunset for what would quite possibly be for the final time in a very long time…

* * *

**Author: Things will start to get very interesting very quickly, I can assure you all that much!**

**Xion: But what was the deal with the whole glowing Sora and blasting me away from something shooting out from him?**

**Author: If you ever saw any spoilers for the end of Birth by Sleep, then you might have the general gist of happened, and I can assure you that that one little event plays a very important role in this story.**

**Xion: But I still don't know what happened!!!**

**Author: You will soon enough**

**Xion: Fine! Be that way! But I'm going to take a wild guess and say that it involves those people named Terra, Aqua, and Ven.**

**Author: At least you know that much, now make the review request**

**Xion: Please review, or I'll do to you what I did to Saïx earlier! **


	6. Homecoming Shenanigans

**Yuffie: YAY!!! Xion's coming home!!!**

**Cid: How much sugar have you eaten in the past hour?**

**Yuffie: About twelve spoonfuls, and now I'm on a sugar rush! Look out heartless! Grand Ninja Yuffie is coming for you!**

**Xion: Why do I call this place home again?**

**Leon/Squall: Not sure, but after seeing this, we won't blame you if you want to leave…**

**Xion: I'll think about it…**

**Author: Somebody just say the disclaimer already!**

**Yuffie: !!!**

**Xion: What'd she say?**

**Aerith: Something about Riku not owning Kingdom Hearts and being on a sugar rush…**

**Xion: I didn't know you spoke hypertongue**

**Aerith: When you're around Yuffie long enough you tend to eventually understand what she's trying to say when she's on one of her weekly sugar rushes**

**Xion: Oh…**

* * *

Chapter 6

Homecoming Shenanigans

*Sigh*

That was pretty much all Yuffie could do at the moment. The heartless hoard that was surrounding the castle that was once Maleficent's base was too large for the whole gang to handle, so they were forced to leave it alone for the time being. Not only that, but since the heartless were not exactly attacking very often, Yuffie was left with very little to do… scratch that, she had absolutely NOTHING to do and was bored out of her mind!

"Maybe I should dress Cid in a chicken suit…" Yuffie thought out loud.

"That would be hilarious, but I'm sure you can do better than that Yuffie!" a familiar voice said from behind.

Yuffie spun around and saw Xion, the newest member of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee that was gone for a year.

"Xion!" Yuffie cried out while wearing her usual ear-to-ear grin and giving her a flying hug, "Did ya miss me? Huh? Huh? Did ya?" Yuffie said while tightening her grip.

"Of course Yuffie… I still have bruises from the last time you hugged me…" Xion strained out while her face gained a bluish tint.

"Oh…" Yuffie muttered while letting go, allowing Xion to gasp for air.

"Now what was this thing about getting Cid in a chicken suit?" Xion asked.

"Oh! Right! You see, I'm planning on dressing Cid in a chicken suit for my own amusement due to the fact that I am bored and need something to do."

"That, and you probably already had 12 Red Bulls to drink."

"That too."

"But didn't you get into a fist fight with Cid last time you forced him into a chicken suit?" Xion asked.

"Yes, and it was fun and hilarious! I'm pretty sure I won that fight too" Yuffie responded through her giggles.

"You also destroyed half of the bailey and broke half of the bones in Cid's ribcage. It took some pretty strong cure spells to fix him up" Xion continued.

"Meh, details, who needs them?" Yuffie drawled.

"So when are you going to slip Cid into the chicken suit?"

"Sometime during the next hour, that's pretty much the only hour that's pretty much the only hour that Cid spends outside of the house" Yuffie explained.

"I'll be waiting to see the inevitable fight."

"And I'll make sure to give you a good show."

"Just try not to destroy too much with the fight" Xion requested.

"No promises!" Yuffie said as she ran off.

'_This is going to get messy… but it's also going to be hilarious!'_Xion thought.

* * *

"Hey! Tifa!" Xion called out as she entered the market and saw one of her friends. Tifa then turned around and saw a long-haired version of Xion.

"Xion! Is that you?" Tifa asked.

"The one and only! So what have you been doing for the past year?"

"Same thing from before you left"

"Trying to find Cloud with no luck…" Xion finished.

"Depressing… isn't it?" Tifa asked, looking a little downcast.

"Yes, but watching the little stunt that Yuffie plans on pulling on Cid will probably cheer you up Tifa! I think she's planning on pulling it on Cid any minute now…" Xion said before they heard Cid shouting out at the top of his lungs, also shouting out an incredibly long string of profanities that will not be said in this fanfic for the sake of its content rating.

"Whoops… I guess Yuffie decided to work ahead of schedule!" Xion laughed out loud when she saw Yuffie fighting Cid in a yellow chicken suit. (Anyone who has watched Peter fight that giant chicken in Family Guy knows what music to play)

Both Tifa and Xion were now completely cracking up at the sight of Cid in a chicken suit fighting Yuffie. The two of them also somehow managed to not destroy the surrounding area and still beat each other up pretty badly. That was until Cid threw Yuffie over the railing of some stairs and made her land on a cabbage stand, making the cabbage merchant shout out, "MY CABBAGES!" Yuffie then jumped back at Cid and slammed him into a stand for cooking utensils. The fight then ended when Yuffie grabbed a frying pan from the stand and smacked Cid across the face and then hit him on top of the head with it for good measure, and then paid for it and walked away with her clothes in tatters. Only for Cid to then open a black eye and narrow it in anger while clenching his fists.

Xion and Tifa then decided to approach Cid and make sure he didn't do anything drastic.

"Alright Cid, I think that's enough. You're beaten up pretty badly, and I don't think Yuffie is fairing much better either" Tifa said while supporting him with his arm slung over his shoulder.

"How many times has this happened anyway?" Xion asked.

"Including this one, three" Cid groaned.

"And for some reason, it only happens when Yuffie somehow manages to stuff him into this chicken suit" Tifa said.

"What I'd like to know is how Yuffie managed to stuff you into this thing, not to mention how she managed to get her hands on a chicken suit" Xion said.

"Nobody really knows, and whenever we ask her, all she really says is that, 'she has her ways.' I personally think that she bought it through the black market somehow" Tifa explained.

"And I really don't know how she manages to stuff me in this damn thing, and I'm the one wearing it!" Cid complained.

"Well, let's just get you to Aerith, Cid. You look like shit" Xion said, choosing to use Cid's language.

"Feel like it too…" Cid groaned.

* * *

Tifa and Xion managed to slip Cid out of the chicken suit that Yuffie somehow managed to stuff him into. They took him to Merlin's house so that they could get Aerith to heal him, and after Aerith cast a few cure spells on him, he was good enough to work on his computer again.

It was also around this time when everyone finally got reacquainted with Xion. Merlin had Xion go into detail about what she had to go through and what she learned while she stayed with Yen Sid. Aerith was just glad that her friend returned home safe and sound. Cid just thanked her for helping him recover from his third chicken fight with Yuffie and told her to stay away from his computer. Leon on the other hand, just simply nodded after staring at her in a calculating way, and then walked away silently as if just looking at Xion caused him pain for some reason. This confused Xion because she didn't know Leon's past, or even his real name.

* * *

'_Why?! Why does she have to look so much like her now? If it wasn't for the fact that Rinoa had some of her hairs dyed brown, and the different eye color then I would have mistaken Xion for Rinoa' _Leon thought. There was no denying it, when he first saw Xion after she left for a year, she looked almost exactly like Rinoa, the only person that he ever fell for, but then was forced to seal away with the help of his friend Irvine because some otherworldly force was starting to possess her and she practically begged him to seal her away.

'_I wonder how she's doing right now… is she happy with the choice she made? and is it even possible to locate the force that possessed her and destroy it without hurting Rinoa? I used to call myself by my real name… heh, I actually used to hate being called Leon, but after my ultimate failure… the failure to save the person I love from being possessed… I deserve being called by a name I dislike…'_Leon then started walking out of town, towards Ansem's old castle. Aiming to visit the secret room that is hidden beyond the hidden computer room… the room that Irvine is guarding… the room that Rinoa chose to seal herself away in… the only place in the world that she can't be possessed in.

'_I think it's time to pay Irvine a visit and see how Rinoa is doing…'_

* * *

"Hey, does anyone know where Leon went to?" Xion asked.

"He probably just went out to visit the castle about a half mile away from the Bailey" Aerith answered.

"That old rundown place? Why would he want to go there?" Xion asked.

"It's probably best to just leave him alone and respect his privacy, but if I have to throw my two cents in here, then I have heard that he has a friend that lives there that he might be visiting" Cloud explained.

Cloud was here now because Tifa was now at the marketplace again. He was still avoiding Tifa and it was really getting on Xion's nerves. She was getting really close to just simply grabbing him by the ear and dragging him to Tifa so he could just confront her and let her help him escape from his own darkness already. Instead however, he's too busy tracking down Sephiroth, the embodiment of his personal darkness. Xion hasn't really seen Sephiroth personally yet, but she did get a pretty vivid description of him from Cloud.

"That's possible…" Xion said thoughtfully while looking down, "but now onto other matters… like when you're finally going to get the guts to face Tifa already Cloud!"

Xion then looked up, only to see a cloud of dust in the shape of Cloud's figure slowly beginning to dissipate and the door swinging on its hinges. Xion then groaned and muttered something about spineless, Chocobo headed wimps while walking up to her room to make sure that Yuffie didn't touch anything of value to her.

* * *

A week has passed since Xion finally returned to Hollow Bastion and everything went back to being as normal as things could get. Heartless occasionally attacked every now and then, but they were no match for the Restoration Committee. The only new thing now was the occasional appearance of odd white creatures that had a humanoid shape that Xion identified as Dusks, the most basic form of a Nobody.

Xion knew that the relative peace would not last forever due to the Organization and dark beings like Sephiroth running around. Xion also remembered fighting Sephiroth at a time during the week. That fight was also the event that put Xion into a position so desperate that she unlocked an odd power that she didn't even know she had, and an ability that most Keyblade wielders would consider impossible without some sort of special form ability or taking somebody else's Keyblade. In that fight, Xion somehow managed to draw the Path of Radiance's twin… the Radiant Dawn.

_*Flashback*_

_Xion was at the Dark Depths, one of the few places in Hollow Bastion where she can actually think without worrying about any Heartless attacking her unless somebody summons them. This time however, someone was standing at the edge of the cliff that Xion normally sits at. This person had long silver hair, wears a black trench coat, has a black wing protruding from his right shoulder blade, and also has a big-ass katana._

"_Who are you and what are you doing here?" Xion asked._

_The silver haired man turned around and looked at Xion with a very serious look on his face._

"_I suggest you leave now if you wish to live" the silver haired man said._

"_It'll take more than a single death threat to keep me from getting my answers, considering the way you look and what Cloud told me about the embodiment of his inner darkness, you must be Sephiroth" Xion deduced._

"_You're right, but what I'd like to know now… is what are you to Cloud?"_

"_I'm a good friend of his, what of it?"_

"_If that's the case… I wonder what his reaction will be… once he realizes that I'm the one who killed his friend" Sephiroth said while getting his katana Masamune into an attack position._

"_Don't you think you're jumping the gun a little bit? I'm not dead yet, and I have no intention of dying by your hands!" Xion proclaimed while summoning her Keyblade, and getting into her usual attack position._

_**(Begin playing your favorite version of One Winged Angel- I personally prefer the Crisis Core version)**_

_Sephiroth then darted at Xion with god-like speed and slashed at her, barely leaving her enough time to put up her guard and brace for impact. Her guard was rewarded with the sound of metal impacting metal. Sephiroth and Xion were now in a sword clash with both sides pushing against each other for dominance. Sephiroth, being the one with more physical strength, was winning and almost had Xion on her knees when she shifted her weight and slanted her Keyblade just enough to redirect Sephiroth's blade and gave herself an opening to attack. She took her attack opportunity without a second thought and immediately delivered a powerful seven hit combo that sent Sephiroth reeling backwards, giving both combatants room to recover their bearings._

"_Impressive, it looks like I underestimated you" Sephiroth spoke up before returning to his attack position, "but no more, a light as powerful as yours is too dangerous to my kind to be allowed to live. I'm done with my warm-up, it's time for the real battle to begin."_

_Xion just returned to her attack position and said, "and I believe that a being as dark and evil as you shouldn't exist, you're ruining a good person's life and I cannot allow this to continue. I wonder… if my light is powerful enough to erase you, or will I just simply have to wait until Cloud finds out how to finish you off personally."_

'_Let's find out…' Sephiroth said while summoning orbs of darkness to close in on Xion and immobilize her long enough for him to cut her down. Fortunately for her, she was able to cast reflect and send the dark orbs back at her opponent, giving her an opening to unleash another can of pain-a-la-Xion on Sephiroth, sending Sephiroth staggering again. Sephiroth wasn't done yet though, he then flew into the air over the edge of the cliff and raised his free hand into the sky and announced, "Meteorain" dozens of small meteors then started to rain down onto the battlefield through portals of darkness that Sephiroth summoned, but thanks to Xion's incredibly fast reflexes, she managed to avoid the brunt of the attack. She still wasn't out of the woods yet though, Sephiroth did not give her any breathing room because once he appeared behind her, he unleashed columns of fire around him, burning Xion while forcing her to be flung back and then drawn back in again. Xion however, was not going to allow herself to be sucked into the attack, she instead made her Keyblade and hand glow brightly and plunged the Path of Radiance into the ground, initiating the capture part of Northswain's Glow. Once the columns of fire faded, Sephiroth realized that he was trapped and Xion was grinning and then shouted out, "let's see if you survive this one Sephiroth! Northswain's glow!" Xion then slammed her glowing free hand onto the ground and made an incredibly powerful beam of light impact Sephiroth with an insane amount of force._

_When the light faded, Xion noticed that Sephiroth was still standing where he once was with an evil look in his sickly green eyes. Black energy started to radiate from Sephiroth, showing that he was now choosing to show his full power. "That's enough" Sephiroth said while entering a draw slash stance and then exiting it by slashing and unleashing a beam of energy that forced Xion onto her back. Sephiroth then used this to his advantage and jumped into the air and said, "to the promised land" while descending on Xion. Only for Xion to roll out of the way and shoot an extended blade of light at Sephiroth, catching him off guard and impaling him at his right shoulder and then pinning him to an overlooking cliff's wall. Sephiroth wasn't going to have any of that though, he then disappeared in a swirl of black feathers and then appeared overlooking the Dark Depths and announced, "ascend… heartless angel…" Sephiroth then snapped his fingers and an explosion of black energy hit Xion like a ton of bricks, forcing her onto her knees and also caused her to drop her Keyblade due to the stress of the hit._

_Sephiroth now walked towards Xion and pointed his sword at her in an executioner's blow fashion and said, "You were a worthy opponent, but this is the end…"_

_Xion was prepared for the worst since her body felt like lead and there was no way she could dodge or find the strength to block the next attack when she heard a voice call out from the back of her mind, 'Don't give up now! Here, let me lend you some of my strength.'_

_Sephiroth was about to deliver the finishing blow when Xion started to emit a blue aura and re-summoned her Keyblade in a backhand position and also summoned a second Keyblade that had the exact same design as the first one, except this one's blade had a sunset orange color with a black hilt, and the image at the end of the keychain looked like a sunrise instead of a full sun. She then somehow managed to dodge the blow that was a point-blank range mind you, and then deliver a furious barrage of incredibly fast slashes that were all but impossible to block. Sephiroth could have also sworn that Xion muttered the words 'Speed Rave' before gaining that blue aura. Xion then ended her brutal assault by delivering a critical hit that sent him flying into the same place Xion pinned him to earlier with her light blade._

_Xion then looked at her two Keyblades and said, "I don't know where I got this power from… but I think I like it!"_

_Xion then looked back at Sephiroth and prepared to charge at him and end the battle when Sephiroth got up and said, "You are indeed a worthy adversary… but it seems like Cloud is the only one with the ability to finish me off once and for all... farewell… worthy adversary… until we meet again on the field of battle" Sephiroth then disappeared in a flurry of feathers._

_*End Flashback*_

Xion still did not know how she managed to unlock that ability and how she knew that it was called Speed Rave. All she knew was that for a brief moment, it felt like another force near her heart took over for a brief moment and gave her the power to save herself. She even tried to use the ability again for a bit, but with no luck. She was, however, still able to summon two Keyblades at once, which was good enough for her for now.

Once she was done recollecting her dual with Sephiroth, she then felt someone walking up to her from behind. She then turned around and saw King Mickey approaching her in an Organization uniform.

"Umm, Mickey… why are you wearing an Organization uniform? And more importantly, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be spying on the Organization?" Xion asked.

"I was, but since Sora is scheduled to awaken today, I thought I'd pay him a little visit. Would you like to come along?"

"Sure! How long should this take anyway?" Xion asked.

"Probably a few hours, a day at most" Mickey guessed.

"Alright then, let's go Mickey!" Xion said while opening a light corridor.

"Oh, by the way, you never did mention your name to me back in Castle Oblivion, only that you were Master Yen Sid's current apprentice. How is he by the way?" Mickey asked while walking in the direction of the corridor.

"It's Xion, and he's fine now that I finished my apprenticeship under him, so that means that he doesn't have to worry about an apprentice accidentally burning off his eyebrows and destroying his training room beyond repair with an overpowered Ultima spell."

"It seems like your shenanigans were even more destructive than the ones I got myself into when he was teaching me." Mickey laughed out.

"He also said that you should visit him more often" Xion managed to giggle out while imagining Mickey 'borrowing' Master Yen Sid's wand.

The two then departed for Twilight Town, unaware of the series of events that the two will be forced to go through shortly after their return.

* * *

**Xion: Who was that voice that you put in my head during the battle with Sephiroth?**

**Author: I'm not going to give you a direct answer, but I am going to tell you that it's connected to that blast of light from last chapter.**

**Xion: That still isn't a big enough hint for me! Sure, I might be able to wield two Keyblades now, and I'm able to use this thing called 'Speed Rave' when a situation gets desperate enough, but I still don't know what that flash of light was and how it's connected to that voice that randomly appeared in my head!**

**Author: If you saw any Birth by Sleep spoilers then you would have at least a general gist of what's going on with you.**

**Mickey: I know what's happening, but that's only because I'm in Birth by Sleep.**

**Author: Ah, Mickey, I'm so glad you could join us, would you like to make the review request?**

**Mickey: Sure! Please Review or one of us might tell Sephiroth that you're precious to Cloud in some way.**

**Author: I would also like to announce to the readers that this story will have four central characters that will be focused on for the majority of this story. Two of them will be Xion (Duh) and Mickey.**

**Xion: Who are the other two?**

**Author: Well, Mickey probably already knows who one of them is, and probably also has a good idea of who the other one is.**

**Xion: Is at least one of them female? I'd feel a little out of place if I was the only girl in a group of four**

**Author: Yes, one of them will be female**

**Mickey: Now I definately know who the other two are now**

**Xion: Then TELL ME!!!**

**Author: Don't tell her**

**Mickey: Sorry, but I've just been told not to tell you by our superior**

**Xion: How is he our superior?**

**Author: Because I control everything that happens here**

**Xion: That's a load of- (Cow lands on top of Xion and moos)**

**Mickey: That's gonna sting...**

**Author: Don't worry, she'll be fine**


	7. Into the Realm of Darkness

**Sora: So I'm finally going to show up in this?**

**Author: Yes, but your role in this story is rather minor**

**Sora: WHAT?!**

**Xion: I'm the star of this show, Sora! All you're mainly going to do is the same things that you did in the game**

**Sora: Well that sucks…**

**Author: Xion's job is to re-connect the things that were separated a decade ago, the things that you would have had to do in what would most likely be KHIII.**

**Xion: So there won't be a sequel?**

**Author: Nope!**

**Xion: Oh, well… I guess I'd better squeeze as much fun out of this fic as I can then…**

**Author: Sora, you may say the disclaimer since you are no longer a vegetable**

**Sora: The person that has the same first name as my best friend does not own Kingdom Hearts.**

**Author: It belongs to Disney and Square Enix… lucky bastards…**

Chapter 7

Into the Realm of Darkness

Xion chose to not follow Mickey to Master Yen Sid's tower due to the fact that she was just recently there and did not want to be berated about destroying the magical training room beyond magical repair with an overpowered Ultima spell. Xion giggled at the memory of that while she passed a group of friends that were buying ice cream from a vendor (Guess who?). Xion decided that she was in the mood for some ice cream and went to buy some. Once she got her ice cream and was happily eating it, she decided to visit the sandlot. She reached the sandlot just after she finished her ice cream bar and saw a group that she recognized as the self proclaimed "Disciplinary Committee" of Twilight Town harassing the group of three that she just recently saw buying ice cream.

"Will you just back off already Seifer?!" the boy with curly hair and camo pants asked.

"Not until you admit that I will always be your superior and that you are a loser that can never compete with me, chickenwuss" the boy in a grey trench coat, beanie, and a scar on his face that looks dangerously similar to Leon's demanded in a cocky tone.

"You tell 'em Seifer" the bully's muscular and dark-skinned compatriot cheered.

"Just back off Seifer, you already won, isn't that enough?" the brown-haired girl with a floral orange shirt pleaded.

"Yeah, just back off already!" the slightly chubby boy in a red jersey and headband added in.

Xion decided to intervene in on this hopeless situation and ask, "Is there a problem here?"

The boy now known as Seifer turned around and noticed Xion walking in his direction with an eyebrow raised in a cute fashion. Seifer decided to attempt to be a gentleman poorly and said, "I'm just showing these three what happens when you cross Twilight Town's Disciplinary Committee. I suggest you just move along and avoid getting involved, unless of course, you only showed up to go on a date with yours truly…"

"Not interested" Xion shot down flatly while waving Seifer off and walking over to the group that Seifer was picking on.

"Are you guys hurt in any way?" Xion asked.

"Humph, only my pride" the curly-haired boy responded.

"Oh, I see, you're the kind of girl that just aims for giving weaklings pity dates" Seifer taunted, causing Xion to become rather annoyed.

"Actually, I'm just making sure that the guy you just beat up wasn't hurt. I'm just the kind of girl that prefers to help out people who are hurt… and knock people like you off of their high horses" Xion retorted with a confident smirk on her face.

"What? You think you can actually fight me and win?" Seifer scoffed.

"Seifer's insanely tough ya know, a girl like you doesn't stand a chance ya know!" the muscular guy said.

"NO CONTEST!" the blue haired girl blurted out.

"Actually, I predict that I'll win this fight in one move" Xion said while picking up a blue struggle stick.

"You're going to regret this, don't come crying to me when you're face down on the floor" Seifer warned while picking up his struggle stick and pointing it at Xion.

"I'll keep that in mind…" Xion said while standing still with her blue weapon pointed down at her side.

"You go girl! Show him who's boss!" the orange garbed girl cheered from the sidelines.

Seifer then leaped up into the air and then aimed an attack at Xion while plunging down at her while saying, "Well isn't this romantic!"

"Not really…" was all Xion said while she side stepped the attack and slammed her struggle stick into a pressure point at the base of Seifer's neck, successfully knocking him out cold.

"That was easy… looks like he was just all talk…" Xion said while tossing the blue weapon aside and walking away while the rest of the "Disciplinary Committee" fussed over Seifer's knocked out body and spouted excuses along the lines of Seifer having an off day.

Xion just rolled her eyes at this and walked away, only for the other group to catch up and say, "That was amazing!"

"It was nothing" Xion replied sheepishly while scratching the back of her head out of nervous habit.

"No, really, nobody has ever beaten Seifer up like that before!" the red garbed boy complimented.

"It wasn't that impressive" the curly haired boy said.

"How did you get so strong anyway? You were amazing!" the girl said while ignoring the last remark.

"I grew up in a bad neighborhood; there were plenty of bullies living there that made Seifer back there look like a chump. I was kinda forced to choose between learning how to defend myself and letting the neighborhood thugs steal my munny" Xion half-lied.

"Must've been hard…" the girl said softly.

"It wasn't that difficult… by the way, we haven't been properly introduced haven't we?" Xion mentioned to change the subject.

"Oh, you're right, my name's Olette" the girl said.

"Pence" the boy in the headband introduced.

"I'm Hayner" The leader of the group said while reaching out his hand.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Xion" Xion replied while returning the handshake while smiling. Xion then sensed Mickey's presence nearby and decided that she needed to escape this meeting as quickly as possible.

"Well, it was nice meeting you all, but I'm kinda on a tight schedule right now and really have to get going" Xion said while running off.

"What was that about?" Hayner asked once Xion was out of sight.

Olette responded to that by saying, "She probably has to finish her summer project, which is something that WE still need to come up with an idea for!"

"Meh, we can still push it off until tomorrow!" Hayner shrugged off while walking over to 'The Usual Spot.'

* * *

Xion walked up to the top of the bell tower, where she met up with Mickey, who turned around and held out a hand that had an ice cream bar in it and offered, "Ice cream?"

"Uh, sure…" Xion said while accepting the frozen treat and then sitting down next to the King of Disney Castle.

Mickey then decided to speak up, "Master Yen Sid gave us directions on what we should probably do next."

"Really? So where do we need to go, and who's the enemy?"

"The enemy hasn't exactly made himself known yet, but there has been an unusual fluctuation in the Realm of Darkness… it seems like something is trying to escape… something very powerful, very big, and very malevolent…" Mickey trailed off.

"I'm guessing that Master told you my story since you're probably going to drag me into this?"

"He did, he also thinks that Kingdom Hearts brought you back mainly for the purpose of having you fend off this threat. Already foreseeing you choosing the path of light and challenging the forces of darkness, but this is just a theory."

"A theory that I think I'm starting to believe…" Xion trailed off, "So how exactly are we going to face this thing?"

"We'll have to travel to the Realm of Darkness and confront it there before it can do any damage in this realm."

"And how are we going to do that, I can't exactly move freely through that place. I can't even travel to the Nobody homeworld without outside help, and that's in the Realm of Nothingness!"

"We'll have to either find Riku, or trick someone who can open dark corridors to send us there."

"That's going to be a drag…" Xion complained while chewing on the stick that used to have her ice cream on it. The duo just sat there and pondered their next move until Mickey spoke up again, "If we do manage to get in there, we might be able to break an old friend of mine out of there… if she's even still alive, that is…"

"Who?" Xion asked, now curious about this person Mickey mentioned.

"A fellow Keyblade wielder… she goes by the name Aqua, and about 10 years ago, she was forced to fight one of her two closest friends. Her friend Terra was possessed by a dark spirit… I don't know how it happened or what became of the two, but the only place that I haven't looked for the two of them would be the Realm of Darkness."

"You said that she had two friends, one of them is this Terra person. Who's the other one?"

**(Begin playing Ventus' theme from Birth by Sleep for a slight emotional effect, just look it up on Youtube, I can wait…)**

Mickey sighed at this, apparently, this other person's story must have been depressing. Mickey then spoke up and said, "His name is Ventus, and what happened to him is a really sad story. He's still alive, but he's just an empty shell with no heart at this point. Not a Nobody, but not a heartless either, just a human body without a heart. You see, Aqua was also forced to fight Ven as well, before she disappeared. I was actually there to fight as well; I also saw how it all happened. A dark entity by the name of Vanitas, who happens to be Ven's dark side made flesh, managed to re-merge with Ven and gained control of his body, Aqua and I had to team up to stop him, and it was a fight that we barely won. Chances are that when Vanitas almost landed a killing blow on Aqua, Ven managed to hold Vanitas back just long enough for Aqua to land a decisive blow that shattered the legendary Keyblade that Vanitas managed to acquire and destroy Vanitas as well, but unfortunately, Ven's body was then left in a vegetative state with no heart. Apparently, the fight must have somehow damaged Ven's heart and forced it to migrate to a host that wouldn't reject it, but this is just a theory" Mickey explained.

Xion just stared at the sunset and absorbed all the information that Mickey was giving her. She then thought out loud while holding her right hand to her heart, "All these names… Aqua, Ventus, Terra, Vanitas… I feel like I've heard them all before somewhere…"

**(You may now stop the music now)**

Mickey clearly wasn't listening because he was looking down at the ground and then drew his Keyblade and said to Xion, "We can ponder this later, it looks like a group of Nobodies have shown up and are attacking Sora!"

Hearing Sora's name got Xion's head out of the clouds and made her look down. She saw Sora in his red outfit, (which by the way, looked a little small on him) fighting off an endless group of Dusks with a duck that is good with magic, and a walking dog with a shield.

"It looks like they're doing fine, besides, it looks like those three need this fight to knock some rust off of their abilities" Xion said.

"True, but what about that Dark Thorn Nobody that's rising out of the darkness?" Mickey asked while pointing at the large Nobody.

"Okay then… you go help Sora out with the Dusks, and I'll deal with that monstrosity" Xion said.

"Sounds like a plan, well let's go! We don't have time to waste!" Mickey exclaimed while jumping off the edge of the bell tower and onto the battlefield.

'_If he's expecting me to jump from this height then he's got another thing coming…'_ Xion then looked up at the peak of the bell tower, _'I'm gonna be jumping from THAT height!'_

* * *

Sora was having a really horrible time with these things. They weren't heartless, but they were just as annoying as them. If it was just a few of them, then he, Donald, and Goofy would be done already, but things just didn't seem to be going his way today.

Sora was about to be pummeled by another wave of white creatures and its colossal 'possible' leader when a black blur fell from the sky and slashed at the smaller white creatures, instantly destroying them. Donald and Goofy immediately recognized him and shouted out, "YOUR MAGESTY!"

The King then brought a finger to his lips and made a shushing sound. He then spoke up by saying, "Sora, you, Donald, and Goofy need to board the train and leave town, the train knows the way. Here." Mickey then handed Sora a pouch that was a pale orange and was bulging with what was probably munny.

"But what about you?" Sora asked while taking the pouch.

"My comrade and I can handle this thing easily enough, just go already, don't worry about me!" the King ordered.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy decided to follow the King's instructions and headed for the train station, just missing the chance to see a figure in an orange jacket jump from an insane height and slay the enormous enemy in a single attack.

* * *

(While Mickey was ordering Sora and the others to leave)

Xion was standing at the top of the tower with her arms outstretched and was staring at the Dark Thorn Nobody. Just before the Nobody chose to make the first move, Xion made her incredible leap of fate and summoned her Path of Radiance Keyblade in mid-jump. She then positioned herself in midair and made sure that the blade of her weapon was aimed at the center of her enemy's skull. The sheer momentum of her diving stab was so great that when it made contact, the Dark Thorn toppled over and fell to the ground with at thud, taking Xion with it. Xion however, rolled off of the white monstrosity's head and landed safely a good few feet away from the now vanishing Nobody.

"You enjoy showing off don't you?" Mickey asked while tapping his foot and crossing his arms.

"Maybe a little" Xion teased while making a 'just a little' sign with her middle finger and thumb.

Mickey just sighed and then said, "Our next destination is Hollow Bastion, we need to find out a way to enter the Realm of Darkness safely, and the library in Ansem's study would be our best bet."

"Then I'll just open a light corridor so we can get going" Xion said while opening a light corridor. The two then walked through the light corridor and returned to Hollow Bastion.

* * *

Xion and Mickey exited the light corridor and found themselves back at the marketplace in Hollow Bastion. Xion immediately looked around to see if one of her friends was around when Mickey interrupted.

"Xion, I'm going to go ahead to Ansem's study to see if there are any clues to what we should probably do next. You can tag along if you want"

"No thanks, that would probably involve looking through a library and I've already done that recently."

"Okay then, let's make sure to meet up at the Bailey in 5 hours from now."

"Sure!" Xion said while running off, Mickey decided to take off as well and headed for the ruined remains of Ansem's castle, in search of his study.

Xion ran over in the direction of Merlin's house, but then stopped when she saw odd spherical things appear and then disappear out of the ground.

"What is that?" Xion asked nobody in particular.

"It's the town's defense system against Heartless, it might not be very powerful, but it does help us fight them" a familiar voice answered from behind.

Xion turned around and saw Tifa walking up to her, "So these things are what Cid was working on…"

"Mhmm, Cid probably would have got this done even sooner if Yuffie didn't almost constantly bug him and occasionally stuff him into a chicken suit" the two of them giggled at the memory of that.

"So I'm guessing that Cid managed to finish this while I was visiting Twilight town?" Xion asked.

"Yep!" Tifa would have said more, but immediately turned around and got into a fighting stance when she heard a Neoshadow rise out of the ground behind her. Xion also summoned her two Keyblades when she realized that they were surrounded.

"Can't I go for at least ONE day without running into a Heartless or Nobody?!!!" Xion cried out in agitation.

"Apparently not" Tifa replied while beating the living daylights out of a Neoshadow.

Xion then released her anger by slashing through four Neoshadows with ease and shooting a beam of light out of one of her Keyblades to skewer and destroy another. While Tifa on the other hand, destroyed a Neoshadow with her Final Heaven attack and then grabbed another by the arm and threw it up in the air, she then leaped up, grabbed it by the leg, and then threw it down to the ground and shouted out "Meteor drop!" The Neoshadow was destroyed upon impact while the others that were only slightly damaged were destroyed by the town's defense system.

"That was boring… not to mention a complete waste of time" Xion complained while dismissing her Keyblades.

"Well at least we know that the town's defense system is working well, even if Cid probably could have made it a little stronger" Tifa said.

Xion and Tifa then walked over to Merlin's house together while talking about random things like friends normally do.

* * *

Mickey passed Leon at the Bailey and continued towards Ansem's old castle. After running for a few minutes and slaying a few Heartless and the occasional Nobody, he finally made it to the castle.

'_This place has seen better days…'_ Mickey thought.

Mickey just reached Ansem's old study when he ran into Cloud, "Are you looking for something?"

"I'm trying to find information on how to safely enter the realm of darkness to stop something big from escaping" the King replied.

"Maybe you should try the computer room then, that computer has even more information on it than all of the books in this study" Cloud said while pressing a hidden switch, causing a hidden passageway to appear.

"Thanks" Mickey said as he ran towards the computer room while Cloud left to some other part of Hollow Bastion.

* * *

Xion chose to head back in the direction of the marketplace after bugging Cid and having a pointless conversation with Aerith. Things were as slow as usual around the marketplace with Scrooge trying to recreate Sea-Salt ice cream in this world, (Xion was always the first to taste test due to her love of ice cream) and Huey, Dewy, and Louie selling things like weapons and accessories. There were also Moogles walking around selling their Synthesis services, which was good since Xion always somehow manages to get her hands on all sorts of odd materials that just so happen to be necessary for a Moogle to use to create something new and never seen before.

Xion was about to go to Ansem's Castle to see if Mickey found anything important when she heard Sora talking to Yuffie, Xion decided to listen in and then jump in and see if her startling resemblance to Kairi would freak Sora out.

"That's the town's defense system" Yuffie pointed out after Donald asked nobody in particular what was happening.

Sora and his gang looked up and saw Yuffie smiling at them with her eyes closed, but then opened her eyes in surprise when she saw a Nobody appear and shouted out, "Look out!" to warn Sora of the incoming attack while Sora followed Yuffie's advice and blocked the incoming attack. Xion decided to just watch and see how much Sora improved after receiving that drive suit from Yen Sid. She wasn't disappointed because Sora managed to defeat the Dusk and Samurai Nobodies effortlessly alongside Donald and Goofy.

Once the coast was clear, Yuffie decided to jump down and commented on things that Xion couldn't quite make out due to her not being in a close proximity. Xion decided to lean a little closer and managed to hear what they were saying.

"Hey Yuffie, have you seen the King and Riku?" Sora asked.

Yuffie looked thoughtful for a few seconds and said, "I have seen the King recently… but I haven't seen Riku around."

"You've seen the King?! Where is he?!" Donald squawked out in his nasally voice.

"Last time I saw him, he was headed in the direction of Ansem's ruined castle. I don't know if he's still there or not though, that was about 5 hours ago…"

'_Wait… 5 hours… OH SHIT! I'm supposed to be meeting with him there right about now!!!"_ Xion mentally panicked before bolting off in the direction of the Bailey, no longer planning of freaking Sora out with her uncanny resemblance of Kairi.

* * *

Mickey was tapping his foot while waiting for Xion to show up, it may have only been a few minutes since the deadline, but Mickey never has been very patient when it came to these types of things.

"Will you just stop that already? Tapping your foot like that isn't going to get her here any faster, she's probably just catching up with Yuffie or something" Cloud said.

"I know, but we really need to come up with a plan of action for dealing with this threat that's trying to escape from the Realm of Darkness as soon as possible. Time isn't exactly something we have right now." Mickey pointed out.

"So you really think that this threat is even stronger than Sephiroth?" Cloud asked.

"Probably, we don't really know how strong it is. All we know is that it's a threat that needs to be dealt with before it escapes from the Realm of Darkness. It could cause an untold amount of damage to this realm if it manages to escape."

It was when Mickey finished that sentence that Xion came rushing in at an incredible pace, clearly caused from panic, "Sorry I'm late! I kinda lost track of time…"

"You're not that late, but please try to keep track of time Xion. We might not have a set time table, but time isn't something that we have on our side" Mickey said.

"I agree, but as far as I can strategize, the only way we can get into the Realm of Darkness and take down whatever is trying to escape is to either find Riku and have him take us there, or trick a member of Organization XIII to send us there." Xion strategized.

"Both of those seem rather unlikely to happen" Cloud pointed out.

"I see what you mean Cloud, we have no idea where Riku is, I really only have the general gist of what he's doing and why he's doing it, and we can't just ask an Organization member to send us there" Mickey said while Xion's face brightened up with an ear-to-ear grin.

Cloud noticed this and decided to ask, "That grin clearly tells me that you have a plan, so would you mind filling us in?"

"All I have to say for this plan is, 'ask and you shall receive'"

"What do you mean by that? You mean you actually plan on asking an Organization member to send us there?" Mickey gasped in surprise.

"Did you already forget that in my recent past life, I WAS a member of that damn Organization! Because of that, I have what you could call… connections" Xion said cryptically.

"Are you sure you can trust Cloud with the information of that past life of yours?" Mickey asked.

"I already told him a few days ago before my duel with Sephiroth. I'm actually planning on telling all of my friends in Hollow Bastion eventually, but just bit by bit, starting with the closed mouthed and understanding ones like Cloud and Leon, they have a tendency to think things all the way through before doing something" Xion explained.

"It's true" Cloud confirmed.

"Well, if you're sure…" Mickey said while Leon entered the Bailey.

"So this is where you are… we were wondering where you ran off to Xion, Yuffie really wanted to introduce you to Sora. I would also want to know when you plan on telling him about your connection to him and this Organization XIII."

"I guess I'll just have to introduce myself then, and personally… I think I'd rather have somebody else tell him because Sora just seems like somebody that would jump to conclusions, attack first, and ask questions later" Xion replied to Leon's question.

"That does seem like something he would do…" Leon trailed off.

"Something who would do?" Sora asked while walking up to the group.

"It's nothing relevant anymore" Leon said quickly while Xion pulled her orange hood up to hide her face because she didn't want Sora to mistake her for Kairi.

"The reason I asked you to come here, is because I want you to take a look at that…" Leon said while pointing at the castle that was once Maleficent's base. "We want to restore Hollow Bastion to what it used to be… maybe something even better… There's still a lot to do, but I'm sure that we can handle everything…"

"Except… for that…" Cloud pointed at the hoard of uncountable Heartless surrounding the castle, "and that" Leon continued while pointing at the Nobodies showing up at random places.

Sora then responded to what Cloud and Leon pointed out by simply saying, "We'll handle 'em!"

"Well that's good to hear, so Sora, you are aware of what's currently happening right now right?" Leon asked.

"Or do you need Xion here to fill you in on this group called Organization XIII?" Cloud finished.

Sora was about to answer when a voice came out of nowhere and asked, "You called?"

Everyone in the small group stumbled in surprise from hearing a voice out of nowhere. Sora then ran into a more open part of the Bailey with Xion right behind him.

"You're doing well" another voice said.

"It looks like the one that beat Saïx up is here too"

"Who's there?!" Sora yelled out while summoning his Keyblade while Goofy and Donald prepared to attack. Mickey also summoned his Keyblade while Xion just tensed up a bit and prepared to attack if necessary.

"This calls for a celebration…" yet another voice said while some Dusk Nobodies appeared, two of them lured Donald, Goofy, and Mickey away from the Bailey gates while two more appeared behind Sora and started to charge at the gate while Sora, Leon, and Cloud charged to defend the gate. Xion was about to help when an Organization XIII member stood in her way.

"I can't let you interfere with our little test of how strong Sora is right now, so why don't you step aside?"

"Not gonna happen! Now get out of my way before I pummel you!" Xion demanded while summoning her orange and black Radiant Dawn Keyblade.

Upon hearing a Keyblade being summoned, Sora turned around and saw Xion wielding a Keyblade and facing off against a member of the organization, but then turned back to help Cloud and Leon hold off the hoard of Nobodies that were trying to reach the gate, believing that she can handle this by herself.

Xion and the Organization member just glared at each other for the entire duration of the fight between Sora's gang and the Nobodies. Both of them were mentally daring each other to make the first move.

Once all of the weaker Nobodies were eliminated, Sora and the others turned and watched Xion and the Organization members' staring contest until Goofy spoke up by asking, "What are they doing?"

"It looks like both of them are waiting to see who will make the first move… some fights are decided on who makes the first move, and how it's executed" Cloud explained.

"Oh…"

Then they attacked, the Organization member struck first by creating an energy sword and slashing at Xion, but Xion parried it and stabbed her Keyblade at the member, aiming for his gut. The Organization member jumped out of the way and then fired some red energy bolts at her, Xion then jumped back and shot an extended beam sword at the Organization member in hopes of pinning him to the wall. However, the organization member disappeared and then reappeared in a different part of the area, surrounded by other members of the Organization.

"Come back and face us!" Sora shouted out, glaring at the members of the Organization members as they left laughing.

"I'm _sure_ they're quaking in their boots now…" Xion said sarcastically.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sora asked, rather pissed off by being blown off like that.

"To state things bluntly, as you are right now… you don't stand a chance against a member of Organization XIII, you still have a lot, and I mean A LOT of rust on your abilities" Xion stated harshly.

"Don't you think that's a little much?" Mickey asked.

"I'm just stating the truth; Sora's going to have to get a lot stronger if he's going to be any help at all in the future. Now if you excuse me… I believe we have a mission to complete Mickey" Xion said while walking away.

Mickey turned back to Sora's shocked face and chose to apologize on Xion's behalf, "I'm sorry about what Xion said to you, please, don't think badly of her because of what she just said. She doesn't normally act like this, it's just that she has a personal vendetta against the Organization and she probably gets a little more serious when it comes to them then she probably should be."

"What did they do to her that made her hate them so much?" Sora asked.

"That's not my question to answer, Sora. We all have our own missions to accomplish before any of us can return home, so I suggest we all get them done as soon as possible." Mickey said before running off after Xion.

'_Xion... who are you?'_ Sora thought before his Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee card started to glow… (anyone who played KHII knows what happens next when some item Sora's carrying around starts glowing)

* * *

Xion chose to run back to the market after her encounter with Organization XIII and was quickly followed by Mickey.

"Are you alright Xion?"

"I'm fine… just give me a minute to cool off..."_ 'I could use some ice cream right about now…' _(Ice cream is Xion's stress reliever!)

Xion just walked for a minute with Mickey following her until Mickey chose to speak up about Xion's plan, "So what exactly is your plan to get us into the Realm of Darkness?"

"Well, you see, back when I was in the Organization, I was friends with Sora's nobody Roxas and the Organization's #8 Axel. I don't know where Roxas is, but I do know where we can wait to find Axel."

"How are we sure that we can even trust him?" Mickey asked, unsure of Xion's plan.

"Axel may be a Nobody, but he's still my friend, I'm sure he'd help us, or at least me if I asked" Xion replied to defend her friend.

"Well… if you're sure… this is the best shot we have right now, so I guess I'll go along with it" Mickey said, choosing to go along with Xion's plan regardless of how unsure he was of it.

"Well then, we'll start by going to Twilight Town's clock tower and wait there for him to show up"

"How are you sure he'll be there?" Mickey asked.

"He always goes there right after a mission to eat some ice cream and look at the sunset… we used to do that as a group of three… just Axel, Roxas, and me…" Then Xion shook her head and looked away, then she continued to speak, "But I'm starting to drift away from the topic… the point is that I know that Axel will help us out with this if I ask him."

"I believe you, Xion. Now let's get this done so we can eliminate this threat in the Realm of Darkness before it enters this realm!"

"Yeah… and save your friend if she's still there…" Xion said while opening a light corridor.

* * *

Axel was doing his usual routine of eating some ice cream after a mission while watching the sunset and wishing that his friends were still here to do this with him. He thought that he was going to be by himself again when he heard the sound of one of Xion's light corridors opening. He then turned in the direction of the sound and saw his friend (and when on duty, enemy) walking towards him.

"We need your help with something Axel" Xion said plainly.

"Just cutting to the chase and being all business right from the start eh Xion?" Axel replied.

Xion just stared at Axel plainly, clearly still a little moody from her encounter with the Organization. Axel then cracked under the pressure of Xion's stare and said, "Alright, what do you want Xion?"

"Thank you, what I want to ask is that you open a door to the Realm of Darkness for Mickey and me."

"Why do you want to go there? You do realize that I can't go with you due to my duties with the Organization, so once you go there, you'd pretty much be stuck until my next visit to the Dark Beach, right?"

"Yeah, but there's some powerful force trying to break out of there right now that needs to be stopped before it escapes. If it does, then this realm will be in even bigger trouble than it already is in thanks to the Organization."

"You're making it sound like the Organization is a really bad place to be, I will help you because you're my friend Xion, but at least tell me why you hate the Organization so much now" Axel said.

"I hate it because one, I see the Organization as the reason you, Roxas, and I are no longer able to be together as friends anymore, and the other reason is because the Organization is ruining the lives of innocent people just to further its own ambitions!"

Axel looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "Those are some pretty good reasons…"

"Although, I'm sure that you probably condone the Organization's decisions mostly because it'll help you regain your heart faster" Xion huffed.

"Actually, now that I think about it… I don't! I may not have a heart anymore… but I still have a conscience though don't I? So that means that I can still choose between right and wrong."

"So what are YOU going to do now with this new realization?" Xion asked.

"I suppose I could play a little double agent for you, you know, pretend to still work for the Organization while I secretly give you and your group info on what the Organization is planning."

"You'd really do that Axel?" Xion asked, a little skeptical.

"I wasn't exactly the best friend I should have been back when you were in the Organization, so you could consider me doing this for you an apology for all the things I did, but shouldn't have done. So you can consider me your own personal double agent in the Organization, got it memorized Xion?" Axel said while poking right temple the way he always does whenever he says, 'got it memorized?'

"Yeah, I've got it memorized… now could you open a portal to the Realm of Darkness so Mickey can stop tapping his foot impatiently?" Xion asked while looking at a rather impatient Mickey that was indeed, tapping his left foot out of a nervous/impatient habit.

"Alright, just make sure to give me the details of how bad this nasty is when you come back alright?" Axel asked while opening a dark portal.

"I'll try to remember" Xion said while walking in the direction of the dark corridor.

"You should get it memorized!"

"No promises!" Xion replied while walking into the darkness.

'_I guess it's time to start a little recon on my former allies then… this is gonna be tricky…'_ Axel thought while creating a dark corridor for himself after the one he made for Xion and Mickey dissipated.

* * *

**In a random part of the Realm of Darkness…**

'_Hm? It looks like I might finally have some friendly company that might know a way out of this god-forsaken place. After they help me deal with these Unversed that are trying to escape of course. Why are they even trying to escape? These things would need someone to command them to do something like this, and the last person that could control them like this was Vanitas… and I could have sworn that I killed him ten years ago…' _a blue haired woman with a Keyblade thought while cutting down another hoard of Unversed in an impressive combination of slashes and spells before running away to catch her breath.

'_I'm getting nowhere fast… I really hope whoever showed up finds me soon… I can't keep this up for much longer…'_

* * *

**Xion: Who was that at the end?**

**Author: Central character number 3**

**Xion: She's that Aqua person isn't she?**

**Author: Yep!**

**Xion: Finally! I'm getting some answers!**

**Mickey: So Aqua is going to appear in the next chapter, but when is the fourth central character going to show up?**

**Author: I'm going to try to make him appear in the next chapter or the one after that**

**Xion: Wait… so if this blue haired girl is Aqua… then the other person that's going to be in the group is either Terra or Ventus, right?**

**Author: She's finally getting it!**

**Mickey: So who's doing the review request now?**

**Xion: I will! Review or I will throw the cow that landed on me in the last extra at you, and I'll make sure that it will hurt… a lot!**

**Cow: Moo!**


	8. Aqua

**Author: We shall now continue the Realm of Darkness Arc!**

**Xion: We'll be meeting up with Aqua in this chapter, right?**

**Author: Yep!**

**Xion: Anyone else?**

**Author: Maybe…**

**Xion: I hate it when you don't give me a clear answer!**

**Author: I like to walk the grey path instead of the black and white one.**

**Xion: You're not making any sense!**

**Author: I don't have to… I'm the author of this story**

**Xion: Grrr… I'm really unhappy with you right now…**

**Author: Then I'll just ask somebody else to say the disclaimer, Aqua! It's all yours!**

**Aqua: Alright, the author of this story does not own Kingdom Hearts, that honor goes to Square Enix and Disney**

**Author: And don't you forget it!**

**(A/N: For those who do not know what the "Unversed" are, the Unversed are pretty much the equivalent of the Heartless and Nobodies in Birth by Sleep. I do not know all that much about them due to the fact that I have not played Birth by Sleep, and will not play it until it is released in the US sometime in mid June (I think that's when it's released in the US…) but I have heard that their existence is mostly derived from negative emotions such as hatred, envy, jealousy, etc. I have also recently discovered that the Unversed all follow Vanitas' commands and are created by him due to the fact that Vanitas is actually the first and original Unversed.)**

Chapter 8

Aqua

"So this is the Dark Beach… now I know how it got its name" Xion said as she looked at her surroundings.

"Let's get going Xion, staying in one place for too long isn't a good thing in a place like this" Mickey warned.

"Alright"

Xion and Mickey are now on the move, and are now looking for any signs of life, hoping to find Mickey's old friend Aqua.

______________

Aqua was not having a fun day at all, first, the Unversed just randomly started to attack her as if they were being controlled. Then she detected some new arrivals that she really hopes are friendly, and finally, an enormous Darkside Heartless suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and is now trying to destroy her.

'_Why is everything in the Realm of Darkness trying to destroy me all of a sudden? Something has to be controlling all of this, but who or what?'_ Aqua thought as she dodged another dark blast from the Darkside Heartless and shot a barrage of lightning at the Heartless' head, destroying it.

"That should give me a moment to rest before another wave comes after me..."

Unfortunately, luck just wasn't on Aqua's side today, because another wave of Unversed immediately appeared out of nowhere, ready to finish what their Heartless friend started.

"Aww, come on! Can't you guys just give me a break for once!!!?" Aqua cried out in annoyance.

Her rhetorical question was answered with a flying Unversed charging at her, only to be met by Aqua's Keyblade and destroyed in a cloud of darkness. Once the darkness cleared, Aqua then noticed that ten more Unversed took the destroyed Unversed's place and then charged at her all at once.

'_I'm getting nowhere fast! If these things keep coming at me like this… then I'm done for! Ven… if you're out there and awake now… please… help…'_

____________

"Well Xion, which way should we choose?" Mickey asked when the two reached a fork in the road.

"Hmm… my gut tells me to go left for some reason" Xion said while pointing to the dark trail on the left.

"Are you sure? That path looks a lot darker than the path on the right"

"Yeah, I'm sure, after all… you normally do have to walk through the deepest darkness to reach the light at the end of the tunnel" Xion mentioned in a philosophical voice.

"Well… you haven't steered us wrong before with your choices… regardless of how unorthodox your choices were, so I guess I'll just follow your lead"

"Blame the unorthodoxness on Yuffie's influence…"Xion muttered as she started to run down the path that lead her and Mickey even deeper into the darkness of the Dark Realm.

___________

Aqua was now panting from exhaustion from the battle that she just fought. She somehow managed to destroy approximately 100 Unversed that seemed fully intent on killing her with only a few scratches on her person, but she wasn't even close to being out of the woods yet. Her years of experience of dealing with these kinds of fiends kept telling her that she had to keep moving or she would eventually have to deal with a horde of them that she wouldn't be able to handle all at once.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened… Aqua then turned around to run, only to be met by another horde of Unversed, and it looked like they were out for blood. She then turned around, only to be met by an equally large horde that fell from the swirling mass of dark clouds that assembled above her during her battle with the Unversed.

'_Ven… Terra… anyone! Please help me!'_ Aqua thought as she prepared herself for what might just be her final battle.

__________

Xion and Mickey were now running even faster into the endless darkness that just seemed to go on forever with nothing but the path visible in front of them.

"I'm not really sure if we're making any progress Xion!" Mickey yelled out from behind.

"Don't worry, we are! It's just really hard to tell because everything looks the same right now!" Xion yelled back.

'_Xion! You have to hurry! Aqua's in trouble!'_ the voice in Xion's head said.

'_Alright voice in my head, I don't know who you are, but you haven't steered me wrong before, so I guess I'll take your word for it'_ Xion thought back at the voice.

Xion then looked up and noticed that the dark clouds that were always above them were now getting even thicker (If that's even possible), and were now moving in the direction that Xion and Mickey were running at.

"Hey! Mickey! Did you notice something odd about the clouds above us?" Xion asked.

"I've noticed it too; all of those clouds seem to be gathering in one location" Mickey responded.

"So I'm guessing that the point that all of those clouds are gathering at is our destination?"

"It's all we have to go on right now so we'd better pick up the pace, those clouds are starting to move faster" Mickey warned.

"Yeah, that does look pretty ominous…" Xion muttered before going from a fast jog to an all out sprint.

____________

"Kyaah!" Aqua cried out in pain when an Unversed slashed at her head and punched her in the gut. She managed to avoid a deep cut to her forehead, but the slash still managed to draw enough blood for her to have to close her left eye to avoid getting blood in her eye.

Aqua's fight against the Unversed horde was taking a serious turn for the worst. She was beaten, bruised, and so exhausted that she could barely keep up a decent reflect barrier. It was pretty much through sheer luck and catching a second wind that she managed to eliminate most of the Unversed that surrounded her, but she was still grossly outnumbered, and it would take a miracle to save her now. This was mostly because the fatigue from her constant non-stop battling was really starting to take its toll on her, and she now had to hold her Keyblade with two hands just to maintain her grip on the only thing that was keeping her safe from the Unversed. Her vision was also halved due to her having to close her left eye to keep her own blood out of it, and she was pretty sure that that last punch to her gut ruptured one of her organs. Things were just getting grimmer and grimmer for Aqua by the second, regardless of how many Unversed she managed to take down.

Aqua was beaten, battered, and bruised… but she was now down and out just yet. She was ready to make her final stand, and had no intention of backing down.

"Alright you Unversed freaks! I don't care how many of you there are! I won't give in, and I won't lose to the likes of you! If you freaks are still around, then that means that Vanitas is still out there! I can't allow myself to die until he's gone from this universe forever! So prepare yourselves because I'm putting all I have left into this last stand!" Aqua declared as she charged all the energy she had stored away into her Keyblade and shouted out, "Blade Charge!" creating a large blue beam of energy that surrounded her Keyblade and extended her Keyblades reach and power.

"This is it… my final stand…" Aqua muttered to herself as she charged at the horde of Unversed.

_____________

"It looks like we're almost there!" Xion said as she saw the point in the sky where all the dark clouds are forming.

"Hmm… this really doesn't look good. It looks like that one point where all of those dark clouds are converging is starting to condense into something and take form" Mickey said.

"Then we'd better find a way to destroy whatever the clouds are trying to form before it finishes forming. I have a feeling that whatever those clouds are trying to create is the thing that Master Yen Sid warned us about" Xion guessed.

"If you're right, which for some reason you always are… then we better speed up our pace even more because it looks like it's almost done forming!" Mickey said while running even faster.

"But I'm already running as fast as I can!!!" Xion yelled as she tried to keep up with the speedy King.

Mickey however, did not hear Xion since he was too busy trying to reach the center of all the action, and when he did reach it, (Leaving Xion winded and trying to catch her breath a good half mile away…) he saw Aqua on her last legs fighting off about 10 Unversed at once, and by the looks of things… it looked like she was fighting off hordes of them for hours…

__________

'_Only 10 more… just 10 more and I can get out of here…'_ Aqua thought to herself as she struggled to stay on her feet and sustain her Blade Charge ability. Two of the remaining Unversed slashed at her in an attempt at knocking her down, only to slashed apart by Aqua's Blade Charge enhanced Keyblade. Then the remaining eight Unversed attacked her at once and forced her to retreat and roll out of the way to avoid getting killed by the Unversed's relentless onslaught. It was then when Aqua's legs finally gave out and her Blade Charge ability ran out of power. Aqua then fell to her knees and held her Keyblade out in front of her in a last ditch effort to defend herself from the last eight Unversed that she failed to destroy, only for one of the larger ones to knock it out of her hand and prepare to deliver the blow that would end Aqua's life.

**(Begin playing Aqua's theme from KH Birth by Sleep)**

'_Well… I guess this is it… I guess I'll never see Ven finally leave that vegetative state Vanitas put him in… and I'll never see Terra free from Master Xahenort's control either… goodbye Terra… Ven…'_ Aqua thought as she closed her eyes and prepared to accept her fate before she suddenly heard a familiar voice call out her name and come to her rescue.

"AQUA!" Mickey cried out as he cleaved the Unversed that was about to kill Aqua in two, making it disperse into a cloud of darkness that ascended into the slowly condensing anomaly overhead.

"King Mickey?! Is that really you?" Aqua asked from her kneeling position on the ground.

"Boy am I glad I made it in time, Aqua! Just one second later and I don't even want to think about what might have happened to you!" Mickey said as he tried to help Aqua to her feet.

Aqua's eyes widened when she saw four more Unversed lunge at Mickey, so she cried out, "Look out!" just in time for Mickey to drop Aqua and take out the offending Unversed with a few well placed slashes from his gold-bladed Keyblade. Mickey then proceeded to take down the last four Unversed with little problem for good measure. Mickey then returned to Aqua's side and cast a Curaga spell on her to heal her wounds and helped her up.

"Thanks King Mickey" Aqua said once she was able to stand again, "If you didn't show up when you did I would have been a goner."

"I'm just glad I made it in time, but right now, time isn't exactly something we have. Look at that dark anomaly up there…" Mickey said as he pointed at the condensing mass of darkness above their heads.

"I didn't really notice that earlier, I guess that was because I was too busy just trying to stay alive" Aqua said as she noticed the swirling mass of darkness.

"Right now we have to destroy this thing before it finishes forming whatever it's trying to form. I believe that this is the part where Xion blows this thing up with an incredible light spell…"

"Umm… who's Xion? And where is she?" Aqua asked.

"She's the person that got me here and is a Keyblade wielder that trained under Master Yen Sid, much like myself, and is capable of performing very powerful light spells, and right now I'm wondering where she ran off to…" Mickey answered.

**(End Aqua theme)**

"I'm right here!" Xion moaned out in a very winded and tired voice.

"Oh, there you are! What happened to you?" Mickey asked while running in her direction with Aqua hot on his tail.

"I got tired from trying to keep up with you…" Xion moaned out as she collapsed onto the ground face-first.

"Xion! Now's not the time for this! You have to destroy that mass of darkness now!" Mickey pointed out.

"I don't wanna! I'm too tired! All I want to do is take a nap!" Xion complained in a muffled and childish voice.

"Here, maybe this will help" Aqua said as she cast a Cure spell on Xion.

Xion then got up with a drowsy look in her eyes and then said, "Thanks… I guess that'll do for now, but I still plan on taking a nap once we're out of here…"

"Well, I guess I'd better get to destroying this thing before it finishes forming whatever it's trying to form" Xion continued as she walked directly under the dark anomaly.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Aqua asked.

"That's easy… umm, Aqua… Right?" Aqua nodded, confirming that that is her name, "I'm going to have to do this by casting my strongest spell, Ultima."

"You actually managed to master that?!" Aqua asked in awe.

"Yep! And all I had to do to master it is keep on attempting to do it correctly until I accidently destroyed Master Yen Sid's training room beyond all magical repair!" Xion said in a surprisingly upbeat voice, which was the complete opposite of how she was behaving earlier.

"Well then… it's time to get started!" Xion proclaimed as she started to gather as much light energy as she could into her hands, and then condensed it into a ball between her hands. She then threw it with as much force as she could muster at the dark anomaly, shouted out "Ultima!", and then snapped her right middle and index finger to signal the detonation of the Ultima spell.

The sheer force of the explosion of light dispersed the vortex of darkness in the air into smaller segments, but what the group didn't expect was the smaller segments of darkness suddenly converging at a spot on the ground a good few yards in front of them at an insanely fast pace, creating a shockwave that pushed the group back a few feet.

The group then heard an insane laugh come from the cloud that caused Mickey and Aqua's eyes widen in horror while Xion remained clueless about what could be scaring them so much.

"Huh? What's wrong you two? I know that this can't be anything good, but you shouldn't be scared of it just yet, I mean come on! We haven't even-"

"I know that laugh" Aqua interrupted.

"Huh?" Xion asked.

"I thought Mickey and I killed him back at Sunset Horizons about 11 years ago, but somehow… he's back!"

"Who?" Xion asked.

A dark figure in a black and red body suit similar to the one Riku wore when he was under the Seeker of Darkness's control, walked out of the cloud of darkness while summoning his dark Keyblade.

"Vanitas!" Aqua and Mickey said simultaneously.

__________

**Author: I shall now leave you with a cliffhanger!**

**Xion: Aww! Come on! I wanna know what happens next!**

**Author: You'll just have to find out next chapter.**

**Xion: This sucks!**

**Aqua: It's just how most authors work, they build up the suspense, and then leave you with a cliffhanger**

**Author: Yep! At least somebody understands!**

**Aqua: By the way, when is Ven going to join the group?**

**Author: Sometime in the next few chapters, the next one is going to be a duel with Vanitas, and the one after that would probably be the chapter that has Ventus in it.**

**Aqua: Well at least he'll be joining us soon**

**Author: Why are you so worried about him anyway? Do you happen to have 'feelings' for him?**

**Aqua: What?!**

**Author: Ha! I'm just teasing you! But your reaction may have just given quite a bit away…**

**Aqua: Hehe… (Blushes)**

**Xion: I guess the review request is all mine since Ms. Blushy over here is too embarrassed to say anything right now?**

**Author: It's all yours!**

**Xion: Review! And just so you know… the cow threat is still in effect, and I also just recently found a brand new catapult to reinforce the threat!**


	9. Vanitas and Ventus

**Author: This next chapter is probably going to be my most epic one yet!**

**Xion: I fight this Vanitas character? How tough can he possibly be?!**

**Aqua: A lot tougher than you think. Don't you dare underestimate him Xion!**

**Mickey: It took both Aqua and myself everything we have to put him down, and he's even stronger than that now!**

**Xion: Then I'll make sure to be careful then**

**Author: Will one of you three just say the disclaimer already!**

**Mickey: Kingdom Hearts does not belong to the person writing this.**

**(A/N: You don't have to follow the music suggestions if you don't want to. They are merely suggestions)**

Chapter 9

Vanitas and Ventus

"Aqua… and the King of Disney Castle… how nice to see you two again" the dark soldier said.

"Vanitas, how are you still alive?! I killed you!" Aqua shouted out.

Vanitas then darkly chuckled before answering, "You'd think that you killed me wouldn't you? However, it was actually Ventus that defeated me in the end, you managed to destroy my body, while Ventus destroyed what was left on the inside… or so he thought…"

"What do you mean by that?!" Mickey asked.

"What I mean is that, while my body was destroyed, my mind and consciousness was sent to this realm, where I've been feeding off of the negative emotions of all of its people for the last 11 years until I was strong enough to summon my Unversed followers and command them to fight you, Aqua. The reason for this is because I knew you were strong enough to destroy enough of my Unversed for the resulting dark clouds to converge at the location of my consciousness and reform into my body" Vanitas explained.

"So you used me?" Aqua asked.

"Precisely…"

"Don't you dare think that I'm going to let you get away with this" Aqua growled angrily.

"I really don't think that you have a choice, I'm just about twice as strong as I was when you and the King fought me at Sunset Horizons, and I really don't think that adding a third person into the mix is really going to make a difference. I wonder if she's even able to wield a Keyblade…"

"Let's find out!!!" Xion shouted out in fury while bolting off at Vanitas, pissed off over the fact that she was being underestimated.

"Alright then…" Vanitas replied while bringing his dark Keyblade into his ready position, which just so happened to be dangerously similar to Riku's ready position.

"Xion! Wait!" Mickey pleaded, but his cries fell on deaf ears.

"He's too strong for you to handle alone!" Aqua added.

**(Insert Vanitas battle theme)**

Xion brought both of her Keyblades out at once and slashed at Vanitas at top speed, delivering about 8 slashes within 5 seconds. Vanitas however, blocked all of them and then delivered a swift kick to Xion's gut, causing her to fly backwards and land on her back. Xion had the wind knocked out of her, but was nowhere near ready to give in.

"So you can wield two Keyblades at once… impressive, but unfortunately, since my power lies completely in the darkness, and the fact that we are currently in the very heart of said realm, you could say that I'm currently unstoppable."

"We'll see about that!"

Xion and Vanitas lashed out at each other again, this time however, Xion managed to duck under a ball of dark fire and delivered a cross slash to Vanitas's chest and sent him flying backwards, also giving Aqua and Mickey a chance to catch up with Xion.

"You should really stop being so reckless, Xion. It might come back to haunt you later" Mickey lectured while summoning his gold-bladed Kingdom Key.

"You might have managed to land a blow on Vanitas, but that won't even be close to enough to take him down. He has an incredible level of endurance, he has incredible brute strength, and he's really fast too" Aqua pointed out.

"So I guess that means that the best way to take him out is to hit him fast and hard, right?" Xion asked.

"If we can deal enough damage, then yes" Aqua answered.

"Then all I ask is that you guys manage to hold him still for a little bit" Xion said.

"What are you planning?" Mickey asked.

"You'll see!" Xion said while charging at Vanitas, who was now back on his feet, and even though his face couldn't be seen, his demeanor seemed angry now.

Xion delivered a 12 slash barrage that Vanitas blocked while Mickey jumped in and delivered a few slashes of his own. Aqua then started to throw in some pot-shots of her own with her fire magic, and started to cast some trap mines as well. With all three of them working together they managed to keep Vanitas on the defensive most of the time, leaving him with just barely enough room to occasionally cast a dark fire blast that was normally countered by Xion's holy fire.

'_How is this possible? This girl's power is both my equal and opposite!' _Vanitas thought as he backed away.

"Got you!" Xion yelled out as she planted one of her now shining Keyblades into the ground, causing pillars of light to surround Vanitas.

"What is this?!" Vanitas demanded.

"This! **Northswain's Glow!**" Xion shouted out as she planted her second shining Keyblade into the ground, causing an enormous pillar of light to burst out of the ground from below Vanitas.

"Gahhhh!" Vanitas cried out before he vanished into the light.

Xion, Mickey, and Aqua then immediately looked around for any sign of Vanitas to make sure he wouldn't blindside any of them with their guard down, but couldn't find any.

"I think my last attack took care of him" Xion said.

"It's possible, but I really don't think that Vanitas would go down that easily. I also think that he's probably biding his time" Aqua said.

"I agree, Vanitas only just got his body back, so I really don't think that he was at full power. He probably only made it look like he vanished into the light so that he could escape and reach full power again" Mickey explained.

The three of them then heard Vanitas's insane laugh again and looked at the top of the cliff that overlooked their battlefield. There stood Vanitas who was now charging an insane amount of dark power in his left hand.

"I wonder how you will all fair against this next attack, the ultimate dark magic!" Vanitas laughed out maniacally.

'_Ultimate dark magic?! If that's what he's going to use then I'll just have to counter it with Ultima before he kills us!'_ Xion thought as she started to prepare her ultimate attack.

"Game over! This is the end! **'Dark Flare!'**" Vanitas called out while firing a large ball of dark energy at Aqua, Mickey, and Xion.

"Not quite! **'Ultima!'**" Xion countered.

Both attacks then collided with incredible force that pushed both sides back a few feet, and forced Aqua, Mickey, and Xion to shield their eyes to keep them from watering. Both sides then looked up and saw a large gap in space itself that looked like it leads to Castle Oblivion.

"Well isn't this convenient… now I don't have to worry about looking for a way out of here" Vanitas said before jumping into the interspatial anomaly.

"Hold it! You're not getting away Vanitas!" Xion cried out while taking off after the dark soldier.

"Xion! Wait!" Mickey called out while following after her.

'_Now I can finally get out of here…'_ Aqua thought while following Mickey.

**(Temporarily stop Vanitas Battle theme)**

* * *

The group of three then landed right in front of Castle Oblivion, with the interspatial anomaly slowly closing behind them.

"I was really starting to think that I'll never see this place again…" Aqua stated wistfully.

"Why's that?" Xion asked.

"Mostly because I've been wandering around the Realm of Darkness for so long that I was starting to believe that I'd never see home again…"

"Wait! You're saying that _Castle Oblivion_ is your home?!" Xion cried out in surprise.

"Is that what everyone is calling it? Hmm… I guess it's fitting since it was designed for causing unwelcome guests to be lost in oblivion forever…" Aqua trailed off.

"Now's not the time to be reminiscing about the past, Aqua. We need to find Vanitas and finish him off before he starts to damage this realm in some way!" Mickey reminded.

"Okay then let's get going already!" Xion called out, already at the front door to Castle Oblivion.

"Wait… how did she-" Aqua stuttered while wondering how Xion got to the front door so quickly.

"Who knows… let's just ignore it and follow her" Mickey interrupted while chasing after Xion.

* * *

Xion was the first to enter the castle and immediately started to look for Vanitas to make sure he doesn't cause too much damage to the place. However, before she could get a decent look around, she was hit in the back of the head and knocked unconscious.

* * *

**(Start Vanitas Battle theme again)**

Aqua and Mickey were the next to enter the castle and were immediately greeted with the sight of Vanitas looming over an unconscious Xion, ready to stab her in the heart with his dark Keyblade. Aqua was the first to react and shot a quick stream of fire spells at Vanitas, causing him to jump backwards and deflect the attacks to avoid getting scorched. He then had to stay on the defensive to avoid getting hit by a ball of light, courtesy of Mickey.

"I'm not going to get a single break from you guys aren't I?" Vanitas asked sarcastically.

"Never" Aqua replied while firing lightning at Vanitas.

"Well that's fine with me because without this girl helping you two…" Vanitas then pointed at the unconscious Xion that he knocked out in a sneak attack, "taking the two of you down will be easy."

"We'll see about that!" Aqua retorted while activating her Blade Charge ability, creating a blue blade of energy around her Keyblade.

"You'll have to be more original than that, Aqua. You already used that against me last time,

"Well I didn't use it like _this_ last time!" Aqua shouted while making the blue beam of energy extend rapidly in Vanitas's direction, forcing the dark soldier to dive out of the way.

"I admit that that's new, but it's still not enough."

"Then how about this!" Mickey said while firing a few light orbs of energy at Vanitas, only for them to be deflected.

"Well this has been fun, but I think it's time for me to wrap this up…" Vanitas said as he encased himself in an orb of darkness.

"What's he up to?" Aqua questioned. Her question was then immediately answered when black silhouettes of Vanitas started to fly out of the sphere and slash at Aqua and Mickey. Aqua managed to avoid them all, but Mickey was caught off guard and was slammed against the wall and was knocked out cold.

"Well I see you managed to avoid one of my newest attacks, but let's see if you can dodge this! **Unholy Darkness!**" Vanitas called out while raising his right hand while a pool of darkness suddenly formed at Aqua's feet.

"W-what are you doing?" Aqua asked, worried about what might happen next.

"This!" Vanitas said as he snapped his fingers, causing dark globs of concentrated darkness to shoot out of the dark pool at Aqua's feet, hitting her for a full 3 seconds before they vanished along with the dark pool.

"Still awake?" Vanitas asked rhetorically.

"Nghhh…" Aqua replied before firing a stream of lightning from her Keyblade at Vanitas, which he easily dodged.

"You can barely move and you honestly think that you can hit me with a pathetic attack like that?!" Vanitas mocked while Aqua just glared at him.

"I guess I'll just end this now…" Vanitas trailed off while raising his dark Keyblade, right before getting hit in the face with a ball of holy fire…

* * *

**Right before Vanitas gets hit**

"_Come on Xion! You have to get up right now! Our friends are in trouble and they can't handle Vanitas on their own!"_ the voice in Xion's head cried out, who was now in the form of a person that looks a lot like Roxas, with the exception of the clothes difference and the fact that he was taller than Aqua by a very small margin.

Xion however, was unresponsive.

The Roxas-double then looked at the outside world and noticed that Aqua was in a real jam, and was teetering on the edge of consciousness.

"_Aqua!!! Tch, I know you won't like this, but I don't have any choice right now. I'll have to take over your body until you're awake again, Xion_" the Roxas-double said while vanishing from the mindscape.

* * *

**Outside Xion's mindscape, mere seconds before Vanitas gets hit**

Xion's eyes then snap open and the person temporarily in control of Xion's body got up and fired a blast of holy fire at Vanitas, impacting him milliseconds before Vanitas would have dealt an executioner's blow to Aqua. The controlled Xion then jumped in front of Aqua and summoned a Keyblade that was familiar to Aqua and Vanitas known as the 'Gentle Breeze' in a backhand hold and slashed at Vanitas with enough force to send flying into the next room.

Before the controlled Xion could follow him however, Aqua managed to stutter out, "V-ven…" right before losing consciousness, and being caught by Ven-Xion.

"Sorry I couldn't tell you sooner, Aqua, but I wasn't exactly the one in control of Xion's body up until this point" Ven-Xion apologized before placing her on the ground and then following after Vanitas.

* * *

Ven-Xion entered the next room and saw that Vanitas was already running off into the next room. Ven-Xion immediately gave chase and entered the staircase to the next floor and saw Vanitas running up the flight of stairs and continued to give chase all the way up the flight of stairs until Ven-Xion caught up with Vanitas in the next room and shot a blast of Xion's holy fire at Vanitas, causing him to stumble but stay on his feet until Ven-Xion lunged at him and knocked him down with a kick to his back.

Vanitas then got up and said, "I see you still haven't lost your touch despite being in a different body, Ventus…"

"Cut the chatter, what are you planning, Vanitas!" Ven-Xion demanded.

Vanitas then chuckled darkly before answering, "If you must know, I plan on finding your real body so that I can destroy it to keep the number of nuisances that I'll have to put up with while finding a person with a light that equals my darkness to merge with so that I can reclaim the X-Blade to a minimum."

"I'm not going to let that happen! I'll stop you just like I did 11 years ago!" Ven-Xion declared.

"You'll have to catch me first, Ventus…" Vanitas chuckled darkly while taking off again.

"Get back here, Vanitas! You won't get away!"

**(Stop Vanitas Battle theme again)**

* * *

Mickey was the first of the two to wake up at the entrance, and once he was coherently thinking again, he noticed Aqua lying down on her back, clearly unconscious. Mickey then ran over to get a closer look and noticed that she was injured but healable. Mickey then cast a cure spell and waited for her to get up. After a minute or two Mickey's patience was rewarded with Aqua finally waking up while mumbling, "V-Ven…"

"Aqua wake up!" Mickey called out.

Aqua then lazily opened her eyes, mumbled something incoherent, and then got up in a daze before she was thinking clearly again. When she was thinking clearly again she looked around frantically and noticed that Xion, or rather, Ven in Xion's body wasn't there.

Aqua immediately took off in the direction of a wall and used her Keyblade to unlock a hidden door. "I didn't know that was there…" Mickey stated.

"I wouldn't expect you to. I'm the one that built this place by sealing this world's Keyhole" Aqua answered.

"Where does this lead to anyway, Aqua?" Mickey asked.

"Just outside of Ven's room… the room that I left his body in…"

"So let's get going then, Aqua! We don't have any time to waste! Vanitas might be looking for that room even as we speak!"

Aqua then gasped upon hearing Mickey say that and immediately bolted up the flights of stairs that lead to the Room of Awakening, the room that Ventus's body rests in a comatose slumber.

'_Just hold on a little longer, Ven… I'm almost there! I won't allow Vanitas to lay a finger on your body!'_

* * *

Ven-Xion was chasing after Vanitas with a grim determination that would not be denied. Xion's body was starting to feel a little weak in the legs at the moment due to the excessive running after Vanitas, but it was ignored because there was too much at stake at the moment. Vanitas had to be stopped, and Ventus couldn't afford to have his body destroyed. The mere thought of it actually scared him a little.

Ven-Xion then fired another blast of holy fire at Vanitas while still running, but Vanitas already saw it coming and dodged to the right causing the attack to harmlessly fly past him.

"Try something new for once, Ventus! This game of tag is starting to get a little boring!" Vanitas mocked.

"Then try this!" Ven-Xion shouted out while firing a beam of light from his/her hand. The beam caught Vanitas in the right shoulder and pushed him through the wall with incredible force and into the hallway behind the wall until he slammed into a large door.

Vanitas then looked up at the door and mumbled to himself, "This looks promising…"

However, before he could do anything to open the door, he was hit by a powerful fire spell and was sent flying backwards. Vanitas then looked in the direction of his attacker and saw a very fierce-looking Aqua darting towards him with the fire of sheer determination in her eyes.

"I will not allow you pass this point, Vanitas!" Aqua resolutely proclaimed. She was dead serious about this… she was even willing to fight to the death to protect Ventus from Vanitas, and it looked like she was planning to do just that.

"It looks like you're serious this time, Aqua… but no matter; I'll still remove you all the same! Say goodbye!" Vanitas shouted while firing a blast of dark fire at Aqua. Aqua however, deflected it away from her with a reflect spell and fired a series of lightning bolts at Vanitas and continued to do so while forcing him to retreat down the hallway with a flurry of spells and slashes.

It was at that moment when Ven-Xion jumped through the hole in the wall that he pushed Vanitas through and noticed the large door. _'I think this is the room that my body is sealed away in… man, I'm gonna be soooo hungry when I'm back in my body!'_ Ventus thought while still in Xion's body. It was also at that moment when Mickey reached the floor that the rest of the people in the castle are at. Mickey then looked at the door that Ven-Xion was now pointing the Gentle Breeze Keyblade at and saw it unlock the giant door to the Room of Awakening. Ven-Xion then rushed into the room without even noticing Mickey following only a few feet behind.

* * *

**(Commence Ventus's theme!)**

Ven-Xion then entered the Room of Awakening and immediately saw the only thing in the room… Ventus's comatose body. Ven-Xion then walked towards the body that belongs to the heart that's currently in control and noticed his body grew in the past 11 years. He was now actually as tall as Aqua now!

"So this is the Room of Awakening…" Mickey trailed off.

"Yeah, now if you excuse me, your majesty… there is something I have to do" Ven-Xion said while walking closer to Ven's comatose body.

"Alright, who are you? Xion never calls me, _'your majesty'_ since she sees the two of us as equals." Mickey demanded.

"It should actually be obvious if you take a close look at the Keyblade I'm holding" Ven-Xion said while showing Mickey the Gentle Breeze Keyblade.

"Is that you, Ventus?" Mickey asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, and it looks like your theory about my heart traveling to a host that wouldn't reject it was right on the money. At first it was Sora due to his heart being my heart's twin (hearts and bodies are born at different times, that's why Ven is still older then Sora.), but then it jumped into Xion's body due to its attraction and compatibility with the light, and now I'm going to finally return to my body."

"Are you sure you won't accidentally damage Xion in the process?" Mickey asked.

"My heart migrated to Xion without damaging Sora, so I'm pretty sure that this will be the same situation with Xion" Ven-Xion answered.

"I hope you're right, because if this does damage Xion, then we'll lose a valuable asset in our fight against Vanitas."

"I'll keep that in mind…" Ven-Xion trailed off while starting to concentrate on Ven's heart. Then after a few seconds, Ven-Xion's chest around the heart area began to glow until a glowing orb floated in the direction of Ventus's body while Xion started to lose balance and fall until Mickey caught her. Ventus's heart then floated into his body's chest, and then a few seconds later, began to stir.

"Are you awake now, Ventus?" Mickey asked while placing Xion down on the ground as gently as possible for someone of his small stature.

"Slightly…" Ventus managed to yawn out while stretching muscles that he hasn't stretched in 11 years.

"So how does it feel to be back in your old body?"

"Good… but I'd feel even better if I had something to eat… I haven't eaten anything in 11 years! I'm starving!" Ven complained while finishing his well needed stretches.

"You can get something to eat after we find Aqua and get out of here, Ventus!" Mickey said.

"Aqua! I can't believe that I almost forgot about her! Where is she?!" Ven started to_ slightly_ panic.

"I'm sure that she's somewhere on this floor right now, Ventus, but panicking isn't going to help the situation right now. You need to calm down, Ventus" Mickey explained in an attempt to calm Ven down.

Ventus then started to breathe in and out in deep breaths to calm himself before regaining his composure and continuing his conversation with Mickey. "Alright, I'm calm now, so do you have a plan, your majesty?"

"We should first wait until Xion wakes up, which should be any minutes now…" Mickey trailed off while looking at Xion who was now waking up with a yawn. She then rubbed her eyes and noticed that she wasn't in the place that she was when she was knocked out. She then looked around the room frantically until she noticed Mickey and Ventus, who she accidentally mistook for Roxas.

"What are you doing here, Roxas?" Xion asked.

"I'm not Roxas, but since I have seen your memories of him, I'm not surprised that you mistook me for him!" Ventus chuckled out.

"Why do you sound so much like that voice that I've been starting to hear in my head since that odd incident with the glowing orb shooting out of Sora?" Xion asked.

"Because I was that voice in your head" Ventus answered bluntly.

"That also means that since I'm currently here instead of at the entrance… that means that YOU hijacked my body to get me here!" Xion shouted out in mild anger.

"Whoa, whoa, easy now Xion… in my defense, I only did it to save Aqua from getting killed by Vanitas!"

"… Alright… I'll let you off the hook just this once, person-who-was-once-the-voice-in-my-head…" Xion glared in grim humor.

"Can't you just call me Ventus, or Ven for short?" Ventus asked in exasperation.

"Maybe, but right now we should focus on finding Aqua, and then getting the hell out of here!" Xion proclaimed before walking towards the exit.

"Wait! Xion! We need to come up with a battle plan first before we face Vanitas again!" Mickey called out.

Xion then turned around and said, "Well how about this then, I charge in to distract Vanitas while Mickey heals Aqua, since I'm pretty sure she'll need it. Then Ven here will take Vanitas by surprise from behind, this means that we'll be depending on your surprise attack being successful, Ventus. Is this good enough?"

Mickey and Ven just stared at Xion with their eyes bulging and mouths agape in disbelief that the girl whose memories are organized like an ice cream commercial actually came up with a plan like that by pulling it right off of the top of her head. Xion however, just smirked at their expressions and said, "I'll take your silence as an agreement to my plan, so can we please get going before something bad happens?"

That was all the two needed to hear to break out of their states of shock and follow after Xion, who was now leading them in what was hopefully in the direction of Aqua and Vanitas.

**(End Ventus's theme)**

* * *

Aqua was now exhausted beyond all reason, but still fighting with everything that she has. The reason is because she has absolutely NO intention of letting Vanitas anywhere near the Room of Awakening. Vanitas then shot a barrage of dark fire at Aqua, which she blocked with a reflect barrier. Aqua then countered by firing a succession of fire spells that actually hit Vanitas and sent him flying back a few feet. Aqua then darted after him and delivered a four hit combo that sent him back even further. She would have gone even further if her next Keyblade strike wasn't intercepted by Vanitas's dark Keyblade. Vanitas then decided to go back onto the offensive by slashing at Aqua and sending her soaring back a few feet, but she managed to right herself in midair and landed on her feet. Vanitas then decided to push the offensive by attacking again by launching a large dark blade of energy from his sword with just a flick of his Keyblade. It was coming at Aqua too fast for her to block with a reflect spell due to her energy shortage, and the power behind the attack was too much for her to be able to survive if it hit. Aqua then attempted to dive out of the way but noticed that her legs weren't moving due to fatigue.

Noticing that there was no escape this time, Aqua thought, _'I guess this is it… goodbye, Ven…'_

Aqua then closed her eyes and waited for the attack to hit. However, it never made contact. Aqua then opened her eyes and noticed that a barrier of light was in front of her. Before she could speak up however, she was interrupted by Xion suddenly attacking Vanitas from out of nowhere and King Mickey starting to heal her with his magic.

"Thank goodness we made it in time, Aqua!" Mickey said as he healed her, "I'm amazed that you managed to actually hold him off for that long all by yourself!"

"I just couldn't let him near Ven… if Vanitas managed to hurt him under my watch… I'm not sure if I could live with myself… defeat just wasn't an option" Aqua said in a sullen voice.

The two then looked back at the fight and noticed that Xion was only defending, which was odd because she's normally an offensive kind of fighter. Vanitas then kicked Xion in the face, causing her to reflexively recoil, giving Vanitas the opening he needed to target the still healing Aqua in an attempt to finish her off. Mickey then tried to intervene, but was knocked aside with a powerful blast of dark fire. Aqua was still unable to stand properly, but was able to hold her Keyblade in front of her in a defensive position in hopes of holding off Vanitas for just a little longer. Vanitas's Keyblade then descended upon Aqua's Keyblade and knocked it aside, but before he could deliver a blow to the now unguarded Aqua, everyone heard someone shout out,"Fire Blazer!" Vanitas then turned around and muttered in surprise, "Impossible!" as he saw Ventus cut into him with a blazing Keyblade, and then slash at him again with enough force to send him flying back into a wall with a painful and resounding thud.

"V-Ven? Is that really you?!" Aqua stuttered out in surprise.

"Yep! I finally managed to find my way back to my body, Aqua. The only problems that I have to put up with right now though is Vanitas here, who I thought I killed a little over a decade ago, Xion being slightly miffed about me having to hijack her body so that I could finally return to mine, and I also have to put up with the fact that I am STARVING! I haven't eaten in eleven years!" Ven complained as he deactivated his 'Fire Blazer' command ability.

"You're okay, and finally awake again… I'm so glad…" Aqua said with tears of joy in her eyes.

Ven just smiled back at her warmly before glaring back at Vanitas, who was now getting back up.

"Do ya still want more? Because I'd be more than happy to smack you around for a bit longer!" Xion dared while walking in Vanitas's direction.

Vanitas just grunted in annoyance before he started to release a pitch black dark aura. He then spoke up by saying, "I'd rather not… instead, I think I'll do something that I haven't done in a very long time…"

"And what would that be, Vanitas?!" Mickey asked while glaring at him and getting back to healing Aqua at the same time.

"I'll plunge this world into darkness all over again! Except this time, once this world is completely engulfed in darkness… it will slowly break apart altogether with all four of you in it."

"We're not going to let that happen, Vanitas!" Ven shouted.

"I don't think you have a choice, Ventus, because I've already started…" Vanitas stated darkly.

"What do you mean by that?" Xion asked, but her question was then answered by the hallway behind Vanitas starting to darken with Shadow Heartless appearing out of the walls, and groups of Vanitas's Unversed minions.

"I think we've found your answer, Xion…" Ven trailed off.

"So what do we do now?" Aqua asked while finally managing to stand properly.

"RUN!!!" Xion answered while turning around and bolting as far away from the darkness as possible, with Mickey hot on her heals and Ven and Aqua doing everything they can to keep up.

Vanitas then started to laugh maniacally while gloating, "Run! Run as fast as you can, but do you really think that you can escape the end of the world?!"

They need to escape from Castle Oblivion… NOW!!!

* * *

**Xion: Vanitas is really starting to become a real pain, and he's only been here for one full chapter so far!**

**Ventus: I'm just glad I'm up and about again**

**Aqua: I'm glad for that too…**

**Xion: Get a room!**

**Ventus: It's not like that!**

**Aqua: We're just friends!**

**Xion: Suuure… just keep telling yourselves that…**

**Mickey: Can we just end this extra already?**

**Xion: Fine! Ven, you say it since you're no longer a vegetable.**

**Ventus: Okay, please review**

**Xion: What? No threat?**

**Ventus: Do I have to threaten the readers?**

**Xion: It's kinda an unspoken rule**

**Ventus: Fine! I'll try again, please review or we'll use that catapult Xion found last chapter to fire mobs of lemmings at all the non-reviewers. How's that?**

**Xion: Better**


	10. Separation

**Author: I'm finally getting around to typing this story again!**

**Xion: It took you long enough!**

**Author: HEY! Just be thankful that I'm not one of those people that only get around to typing something every other month!**

**Aqua: He has a point, now calm down, Xion**

**Xion: Tch, fine!**

**Ventus: That's good to know, now who has the disclaimer today?**

**Author: Mickey does**

**Mickey: The author does not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, or Final Fantasy**

**Author: That's right! Now stop trying to send your lawyers after me because I'm more cunning than all of them put together!**

Chapter 10

Separation

"Bad day, bad day, bad day!" Xion shouted out as she ran as fast as she could away from the cloud of darkness that Vanitas summoned that threatened to consume all of Castle Oblivion.

"This way! Hurry!" Aqua shouted out as she zipped by Xion and pointed to a rather large door on the right.

"How are we going to open this thing in time?" Xion blurted out impatiently while skidding to a halt.

"Like this" Ven said as he summoned his Keyblade and slashed the door open and landed in the center of a room filled with portals.

"Welcome to the room of portals" Aqua said as she darted to the center of the room.

"Is there a room that this castle DOESN'T have?" Xion asked.

"I think its missing a Room of Tropical Birds" Mickey randomly added.

"Nope! It's got that too! Just two floors down, third room on the left!" Aqua piped up with a smile.

"Can we just get a move on and choose a portal to go through before the darkness that Vanitas just released overtakes us?" Ven shouted out urgently.

"Ventus is right! We need to get a move on before we're stuck here forever!" Mickey shouted out as he headed for a portal that looked like the castle at Hollow Bastion, "Quick! This way!"

However, before anyone could join him, a small tremor knocked everyone either flat on either their backs or onto their butts. Xion then looked at the entrance to the room and saw the darkness that Vanitas summoned entering the room.

"We're out of time! Everyone, just head for the closest portal! We'll find a way back to each other later! Getting out of here in one piece is our number one priority right now!" Xion shouted out in desperation.

Everyone then followed Xion's advice and headed for the closest portal they could find, which unfortunately separated all four of them. Mickey jumped into the portal to Hollow Bastion. Aqua jumped into a portal that showed a permanent sunset, a clock tower, and a run-down mansion. Ventus bolted into a portal that showed a dark cave with a creepy green river, and Xion leaped into a portal that lead to a beach about a half-mile away from an island.

All four of them barely managed to escape getting sucked into the darkness that threatened to consume everything in its path.

* * *

Mickey landed in a roll as he leaped out of the portal that allowed him a quick escape from the fallen Castle Oblivion. He then looked around and noticed that he really was back in Hollow Bastion, and he then decided to go back to the computer room to see if he could find anything out on Vanitas and the Unversed.

* * *

"Oof!" Ventus grunted as he landed on the rocky ground with a thud, "That could have gone better…"

Ventus looked around and noticed that the cave and noticed that there were floating green orbs floating all over the place. That alone was proof enough that this is not an average cave.

'_I guess that I might as well explore this place a bit before I find a way out… AND FIND SOMETHING TO EAT BECAUSE I __**STILL**__ HAVEN'T EATEN ANYTHING IN THE PAST 11 YEARS!'_

Ven then ran off in desperation for food, in hopes of finding anything edible, because right now, Ven was willing to even eat his least favorite foods.

*growl*

"Quiet you! I know you're hungry, but there isn't any food anywhere around here! You'll just have to wait until later!" Ventus grumbled angrily at his stomach.

*GROWL!*

*Sigh…* "Great… I'm having conversations with my stomach now…" Ven sighed sarcastically.

* * *

Aqua landed flat on her face when she jumped out of her portal. She then groaned and got up to realize that she was standing at the base of a giant clock tower.

"I guess I might as well take a look around while I'm here" Aqua said to herself as she started to walk down the street, but then stopped when she saw a group of three buying ice cream. The three of them together almost reminded herself of her former group of three… Terra, Ven, and herself. She decided that now wasn't the time to dwell on the past and continued her walk through town.

* * *

Out of the entire group of four, Xion had the least amount of luck when it came to landings. The others just simply fell about a foot or two, but Xion on the other hand, took a two story drop into a large body of water between two islands.

'_How did I get myself into this mess?'_ Xion mentally groaned as she fell from the sky and landed in the water with a magnificent splash, and then passed out from the sheer force of the impact.

* * *

Kairi thought that today would just be another average day. With both Sora and Riku still gone, and her still refusing to go to the island that she and her two closest friends used to play on until they returned. However, that all changed when she saw an object fall from the sky and create a small display of waterworks from the impact. Kairi decided to let her curiosity get the best of her and ran to the shore to see if the thing that created the splash washed up on shore.

Kairi wasn't very far from the shore at all, so it only took her about five minutes to reach the beach. When she got there, she then saw a girl in an orange jacket with the hood covering her head. The first thing that Kairi did was check to see if the she was even alive or not, so she ran up to the beached stranger and checked for a pulse, and see if she was breathing or not. Once she found out that the girl was breathing and was just unconscious, she let out a sigh of relief, glad that the girl was unharmed.

However, her curiosity of just who the beached stranger was got the best of her and pulled her hood down, and what she saw was without a doubt, the most shocking thing she ever saw. While her eyes were wide with surprise and her hands were momentarily clasped over her mouth, Kairi gasped out.

"She looks just like me…!"

* * *

"I really need to find some food, or at least another person in this place!" Ven yelled to himself as he ran as fast as he could for anything that he believed to look like an exit, or at least a path to an exit.

However, Ventus didn't get very far before he heard what sounded like a few very large dogs barking, and decided to check it out in hopes of finding an exit to this dark, dank place, or at least something that could pass for food. At this point, he was even willing to eat his least favorite foods in the most obscure combination imaginable!

Ventus managed to reach a clearing in a matter of seconds and saw a battle between a swordsman, a magical duck, a shield wielding dog, a Keyblade barer, and a giant three-headed dog that he recognized as Cerberus. However, the battle wasn't exactly what interested him at the moment, what was interesting him was the giant door on the other side of the battlefield.

'_That door has to be the way out of here! Time to make like a banana and split! Mmmm… bananas…'_ Ven thought, while accidentally thinking about a tropical fruit.

Ven then decided that he could both help the group out, and get out of here as fast as possible by just simply flooring Cerberus and darting for the oversized doorway at the same time. So he decided to do just that.

Ven darted at Cerberus at amazing speeds by activating his **Speed Rave** Command ability, and then fired an air-based spell at the ground to propel himself into the air. He then landed on one of Cerberus' heads and slashed it with as much force as he could muster while jumping onto the middle head, ignoring the surprised yelp that Cerberus let out, and repeated what he did to the first one while getting the same results. He then did the same again to the last one, and then fired an Aeroga spell at Cerberus as he fell to the ground, and then once he was done with his attack run, he immediately bolted for the exit while deactivating **Speed Rave**, not really caring about if Cerberus was down for the count or not, mostly because all he really wanted right now was some food for his now angry stomach.

Ven then entered an area that had what looked like what could be described as a stairway to heaven, but he knew that couldn't be entirely accurate. After seeing Cerberus, he knew that he is now currently at the Underworld section of the Olympus Coliseum world, thus meaning that the stairway must lead to the coliseum section of the world. Not wasting any more time, Ventus ran up the stairs, hoping to see a familiar face, and a lot of food.

* * *

'_Who would've thought that I'd find a mansion in a place like this?'_ Aqua thought as she walked through the front door. When she entered the ruined lobby, she took note that the door to the right would be inaccessible due to it being blocked by excessive debris. Then choosing to look around the top floor first, (saving the ground floor for when she leaves) Aqua walked up the stairs and took a left turn towards the single room to the far left.

What she found when she entered was the last thing that she expected. The room was completely white and littered with pictures all over the place. Aqua then took the time to take a look at some of the pictures. She barely recognized a few of the people in them. One of them showed the two kids from Destiny Islands; Sora and Riku, with the Seventh Princess of Heart, Kairi. While another one showed three people in black trench coats, one of them was taller than the other two and had wild red hair. The other two however, looked familiar. One of them had hair exactly like Ventus, while the other one looked like Xion, but with shorter hair.

"You recognize some of these people, don't you?" a female voice asked from out of nowhere.

Aqua was now immediately on high alert and turned around to see a blond haired girl in a white dress sitting in one of the chairs that were pulled up next to the table. Aqua then relaxed, realizing that the girl was harmless and asked, "Who are you? And do you know the people in these pictures?"

"My name is Naminé, and yes, I do know who the people in these pictures are. The three people on the island are Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Do you know them?" Naminé asked.

"I saw each of them at one point or another about eleven years ago, back when they were still just little kids, but Kairi was on a world called Radiant Garden. How did she end up on Destiny Islands?" Aqua asked.

"Who knows? I don't, and she doesn't either" Naminé answered.

"How would you know if she does or doesn't?" Aqua asked.

"The reason is because, in a way, I _am_ her"

"What do you mean, in a way?"

"I'm her Nobody, because when Destiny Islands fell to darkness a year ago, her heart somehow left her body and took refuge in Sora's. Then later, Sora used a Keyblade that had the power to unlock people's hearts to set her heart free, however, it also released his heart as well. Doing this created both me, and Roxas, who happens to be the boy in the trench coat in the other picture that you were looking at" Naminé explained.

"So that's who he is, for a second there I thought that he was Ventus for some reason, and that also finally explains how a Nobody is created. That was something that I was wondering for a while now" Aqua said.

"Now's my turn to ask a question, can you please tell me who this Ventus person is?" Naminé asked.

"I suppose I can answer that. Ventus is one of my closest friends and a fellow Keyblade wielder. Just like the people that you have in those pictures, he's a part of a trio as well. The group was composed of him, Terra, and me, and the reason why I thought that Sora's Nobody, Roxas was Ven is because Roxas looks exactly like my friend Ventus" Aqua explained.

"I see…" Naminé mumbled in thought.

"I have one more question that I'd like to ask, Naminé."

"What is it?" the female Nobody asked.

"Why does the girl in the Nobody group look like a short-haired version of Xion?" Aqua asked.

**(Play Xion's Theme)**

"That's because she is Xion" Naminé answered, causing Aqua to gasp at Naminé's revelation.

"But how is that possible? I met Xion earlier today and I could clearly tell that she has a heart, which is something that a Nobody DOESN'T have!" Aqua blurted out in surprise.

"I don't know how she came into the possession of a heart, or how she even managed to survive her duel to the death with Roxas. All I really know is that she somehow managed to survive and then somehow become a Somebody. The only theory that I have would be Kingdom Hearts giving her a second chance, and a heart."

"That would explain her becoming a Somebody, no matter how far-fetched it sounds" Aqua added, "but I would like to ask who her other was before she became a Nobody. I just want to know if she was somebody I knew."

"Xion never had an other" Naminé answered.

"How is that possible? Doesn't a Nobody need an other to come from to enter its semi-existence?" Aqua asked.

"Xion was an exception. She was actually an experiment lead by a Nobody called Vexen, and was then given form when she unknowingly absorbed some of Sora's memories when I was piecing Sora's memories back together after I was forced to take them apart."

"I'm not even gonna bother asking… however, I would like to know why she looks so much like the Princess of Heart, Kairi" Aqua interrupted.

"And I thank you for that because I'd rather not explain. The reason why Xion looks like Kairi would most likely be because the memories that she absorbed would be Sora's memories of Kairi."

"You also mentioned Xion having a duel to the death with Roxas, how did that happen?" Aqua asked.

"That is probably the worst part of Xion's past life. You see, Xion was actually the one that forced Roxas to fight her, regardless of the fact that they were best friends. She did this because she learned that she was the reason why Sora wasn't waking up from his memory scatter, and since she couldn't kill herself, she forced him to do it instead. It was because of her sacrifice that Sora's up and moving again, but how she somehow came back is something that I think only she knows" Naminé explained.

**(Fade Xion's theme out now)**

"Thank you for telling me all of this, Naminé. Now I think I have a better grasp of what's going on, and what I missed" Aqua said gratefully.

"You're welcome, Aqua" Naminé responded.

"Wait! How do you know my name? I never told you" Aqua asked quickly.

"Actually, in a way, you did. If you remember correctly, I _am_ Kairi's Nobody, thus meaning that I have access to her memories, and you did tell her your name when you met her eleven years ago."

"Oh, you're right, I did…" Aqua trailed off sheepishly.

"Well, once again, thanks for the information, Naminé" Aqua said while heading out the door.

"You're welcome, again, Aqua" Naminé said as she disappeared mysteriously while Aqua left the room.

* * *

Xion currently has a headache… scratch that, a migraine fit the description better because it feels like her head was splitting in two at the moment. The black haired girl then slowly started to open her eyes and see nothing but blurs and black splotches. She then started to hear people talking too, and then groaned from the pain of her migraine. It was obvious that she must have hit the water headfirst.

"Hey, I think she's waking up now!"

"She really does look like Kairi, ya."

"How exactly did she get here anyway?"

"She fell from the sky and landed in the water between the mainland and the island. Maybe she's from another world, just like I am…" the last voice trailed off.

"Where am I?" Xion asked rhetorically.

"Hey, she's up now!" a fourteen year old boy with blonde hair said.

"Who are you?" Xion asked.

"We should all introduce ourselves, shouldn't we, ya?" the guy with the weird haircut suggested.

"I'll start! I'm Selphie, pleased to meet you!" the hyper girl in a short yellow dress.

"Tidus" the youngest one said.

"Wakka, ya" the guy with the weird haircut said.

"And I'm Kairi, what's your name?" the girl that could pass as Xion's twin asked.

"I'm Xion, and it looks like you could pass as my twin, Kairi" Xion teased and introduced at the same time.

"I was about to say the same thing, Xion, but would you mind telling me where you came from?" Kairi asked.

"It's kinda a long story, one that none of you will probably believe" Xion said.

"Try us! We've heard some pretty crazy stories before that somehow happened to be true. One of them would be our world being destroyed and then coming back, and that's because we witnessed it and lived through it!" Selphie piped up energetically.

"Alright, but I really doubt you'll believe a story about Keyblades and light magic" Xion said doubtfully.

"Somehow, after what you just said, Xion. I think that I _will_ believe you" Kairi responded.

* * *

"This place hasn't changed at all…" Ven said to himself as he looked at the entrance to the coliseum. Also observing how little the entrance changed, still showing off its columns and the two giant brass warriors clashing swords at both sides of the entrance while Ventus walked through the front door. When Ven saw what was on the other side, he saw that the only thing that really changed was that there were a few more trophies lying around then before. Ventus then saw the person that he was looking for… that half-goat, half-man combo… Phil! However, if there's one thing that hasn't changed, it would be his tendency to think that you're somebody else while he's working on something fight preparation related.

"Hey champ, how 'ya feeling? Better rest up for tomorrow's match" Phil said, oblivious to the fact that Ven is not Hercules while dusting a few trophies.

'_Same old Phil…' _Ven thought while shaking his head.

"Nobody's gonna want to see a worn out hero… capiche? Remember what I told you, victory in the games comes down to two simple words: eat, bathe, and sleep!" Phil lectured to the wrong person, clearly unaware of his horrible math.

'_His math skills are still as horrible as ever as well!' _Ventus thought while chuckling, poorly smothering his laughter.

Phil heard this however and turned around angrily while shouting, "What's the big idea! And who are you anyway?"

Ven stopped laughing at that point, but a mirthful smile was still clearly visible on his face. He then chose to respond by saying, "I know it's been a while, but don't you remember me at least a little, Phil? It's only been about eleven years."

Phil took that moment to search the rarely used innards of his memory and located the events that transpired eleven years ago.

"So… you're saying that you're Aqua?" Phil asked, clearly not fully remembering what happened, causing Ven to face-fault.

"WRONG! I'm NOT a girl, Phil! Try again!" Ven shot back up, red with embarrassment and clearly humiliated for being mistaken for his closest friend, who just so happened to be a girl.

"Terra?" Phil guessed again.

"Warmer" Ven hinted, still a little red from Phil's previous guess.

"Oh! Ven! It's been a while! Sorry for not recognizing you sooner, but it's been eleven years! Where've you been, kid?"

"… Places…" Ven said vaguely, not quite sure if he should answer the question or not.

"Yeah, well that's good to hear and all, but you should at least make sure to visit every once in a while to make sure that you don't end up being a stranger."

"I'll try to remember that…"

"So what are you doing here anyway, kid? Are you looking to take part in the games?" Phil asked.

"Maybe after I get something to eat because my stomach feels like it's eating itself right now" Ventus answered with his stomach now roaring for emphasis.

"Yeah, we should fix that; you can't fight in the games on an empty stomach after all!" Phil said while leading Ven to the food court.

"_Thank you!"_ Ven whispered to the heavens in tears as he was lead to a place where he could finally get the one thing that was on his mind after he escaped Castle Oblivion… FOOD! GLORIOUS FOOD!

* * *

'_I never would have thought that I would find a place like THIS underneath an abandoned mansion!' _Aqua thought in awe of what she just found. She found the basement that Sora was sleeping in for an entire year, looking at all of the machinery and gizmos.

"Hmmm… a computer… I wonder what it was being used for…" Aqua thought out loud as she sat down and attempted to log on.

"Damn! It needs a password! If I knew who was using it then I would at least have a chance to figure out the password, but I know nothing right now! *sigh* I guess I'll just have to look around before leaving…" Aqua said to herself.

Aqua did just that, she looked around and saw a room that was completely vacant, and then one that looked like a hallway with pods attached to the wall, and the two at the far end of the hall looked like they were recently used too.

"Hmm… I wonder where this leads to…" Aqua thought out loud as she saw a lone door at the end of the hallway. She then opened the door to find a pure white room with nothing but a giant pod in the middle of the room.

'_This pod was recently used too, but who was in it? And why? I'm sure that Naminé would know, but Naminé already left, so I guess I'll just have to store this away in my memory for the time being. I might be able to find some answers later…'_

_

* * *

_

"Well, see ya! I'd love to stick around, but I've got places to go, and people to see!" Xion called out to her new friends as she prepared to open a portal to the world that she saw Ven jump into. She knew that if there was any place that all of her friends would eventually flock to, it would be Hollow Bastion. So because of that, she chose not to follow Mickey and instead, search for Aqua and Ventus, and then return to Hollow Bastion. She didn't get to see where Aqua went, but she did catch a glimpse of where Ven went. She managed to see a green river in a dark cave, so all she had to do was imagine that place and open a light corridor and she'll be there in a snap.

"How exactly do ya plan on getting there, ya?" Wakka asked.

"I did tell you guys about my light corridors, right?" Xion asked rhetorically.

"Then show us! I really wanna see this with my own eyes!" Tidus practically demanded in excitement.

"Alright then! Just keep your pants on, Tidus!" Xion chuckled as she opened a light corridor, causing everyone to gawk for a moment.

Kairi however, was the first to recover and asked, "You said that you already know what the place that this Ventus person went to looks like. Could you tell me about it? I'm really curious about the other worlds."

"It looks like a dark cave with a glowing green river" Xion bluntly stated.

"Sounds disgusting… and poisonous" Selphie blurted out.

"And that's why I'm going to do this before entering!" Xion chirped as she casted **Aura**, surrounding herself in a veil of pale light.

"If I ever doubted your story before… I definitely don't now!" Tidus mumbled, but Xion ignored him.

"Well, I'll see you guys later!" Xion bid as she jumped through her light corridor.

'_Why do have this odd feeling that I'll be seeing her again real soon?'_ Kairi thought to herself.

* * *

**Author: YES! I'VE FINALLY MANAGED TO COMPLETE THIS CHAPTER!**

**Xion: This was quite possibly the worst chapter you've ever written…**

**Author: Well excuse me for suffering from a horrible case of writer's block…**

**Ventus: Writer's block? Well, at least that explains why it took so long for you to update.**

**Aqua: Yeah, it must be a real pain for you to put up with.**

**Author: Yeah, I really hate writer's block… I HATE IT! I HATE, HATE, HATE IT! WHY DOES IT HAVE TO EVEN EXIST? IT HAS TO BE THE BANE OF MOST WRITERS ALIVE! I HATE, HATE, HATE IT!**

**Xion: HEAD FOR THE HILLS!The author's having one of his psychotic episodes! **

**Mickey: While we're running, who's going to say the review request?**

**Aqua: Should I?**

**Ventus: I'll do it! I'm prepared this time!**

**Xion: Alright, we'll let you have another shot at it.**

**Ventus: Alright then… review or we'll force you to have to listen to the author rant on and on about how much he hates writers block, and you won't be allowed to leave until he's done. **

**Mickey: Last time he got like this he ranted nonstop for a week!**

**Author: I HATE WRITER'S BLOCK! I HATE, HATE, HATE IT! IF I COULD FIND A WAY TO KILL IT I WOULD HAVE ASSASSINATED IT NINJA STYLE YEARS AGO!**

**Aqua: It's going to take a while for him to go back to normal, or at least what's normal for him…**

**Ventus: Normalcy is overrated…**


	11. Olympus Coliseum

**Author: We're back and I still HATE WRITER'S BLOCK! I HATE IT, HATE IT, HATE- *SMACK!* (Author is now unconscious with Anime swirly eyes)**

**Xion: (Now holding a broken wooden baseball bat with the thick end hanging onto the thinner end by a splinter) That'll keep him quiet for a couple minutes.**

**Aqua: You do realize that you'll probably have hell to pay for this later.**

**Xion: Maybe**

**Ventus: Then we better get this show on the road before the author wakes up and turns Xion into a newt!**

**Xion: A newt?**

**Ventus: … You'll get better…**

**Xion: Huh… whatever! Disclaimer time!**

**Mickey: The author that is currently out of commission for the next few minutes does not own Kingdom Hearts, and while may not be completely and utterly broke, does not have anything that Disney or Square Enix would want anyway.**

Chapter 11

Olympus Coliseum

Xion exited her light portal and found herself standing in front of an ominous green river inside of a gloomy looking cave.

'_This place is gloomier than I thought it would be, but I guess that the place that all dead people go is supposed to be like this. Now I just need to figure out where Ven is…'_ Xion thought.

She then wandered around a little more, cutting down any stray heartless in her path for the next fifteen minutes until she entered a cliff-like area and finally decided that she was hopelessly lost.

"IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE THAT **ISN'T **DEAD?"

She got her answer in the form of someone stepping out of the shadows.

* * *

_*Gobble, Chomp, Munch, Gulp, Buuurrrp!*_

That, would be the sound of Ventus done eating to his heart's content. Ven already ate a grand total of 3 whole chickens, 2 steaks, 4 whole racks of ribs, and a salad (Jumbo sized). This completely astonished Phil when he returned, fully knowing that this would have put a dent in his wallet if he didn't already own the food court.

"Yeesh, Ven! How long has it been since you last ate!" Phil asked.

"About eleven years" Ven responded before inserting a chicken drumstick into his mouth.

"ELEVEN YEARS? What have you been up to all this time!"

"Sleeping"

"For eleven years?"

"Yes"

"I'm not even going to bother asking because I have a feeling that the explanation would be too long, and will end up interrupting your fight!"

"When is it, anyway?" Ven asked.

"In five minutes! Now stop chowing down and start warming up!" Phil demanded as he pulled Ven away from the food by his left leg and towards the arena.

"Wait! I didn't get to finish my drumstick!" Ven complained while reaching for his half eaten drumstick in vain.

"Too bad!"

* * *

"I see you managed to escape Castle Oblivion in one piece, Xion" the dark figure said, revealing himself to be Vanitas.

"Vanitas, what are you doing here?" Xion asked, Keyblade drawn and ready to fight.

"Oh, just spreading a little darkness here and there, ruining lives and spreading chaos, the usual" Vanitas said in a rather nonchalant manner.

"Not if I can help it!" Xion proclaimed as she ran at the dark Keyblade wielder with her weapon ready to strike. Her attack however was blocked, and she was thrown back with a kick to the gut.

"You'll have to do better than that!"

"Then how about this?" Xion cried out as she summoned her second Keyblade, sped towards Vanitas again, and delivered a ruthless assault that forced Vanitas into a defensive position. Vanitas managed to find an opening in Xion's assault after her twelfth strike and shot a blast of dark energy into the opening, sending Xion back a few feet. Xion then retaliated with a blast of holy fire from one of her Keyblades, which Vanitas dodged and counterattacked by jumping into a red and black shadow beneath him and moving towards Xion as the shadow. Xion knew that this couldn't be good and avoided the shadow at all costs, and barely managed to avoid the blasts of fire that Vanitas shot all around him when he leaped out of the shadow on the ground. This however, was all a diversion to because Vanitas was actually luring Xion closer to the edge of one of the nearby cliffs.

'_Oh, great… so THAT'S his plan, he's trying to force me off the edge of this cliff. How am I going to get myself out of this predicament?'_ Xion thought as she blocked a slash from Vanitas and countered with a slash of her own, but was then sent back when Vanitas parried her slash and sent her to the edge of the nearest cliff.

"What are you going to do now, Xion? You're cornered, and there's no way that you'll get past me! You only have two choices now; die by my hand, or fall."

Xion looked down behind her and noticed that she was out of room to maneuver around Vanitas' attacks. She was cornered, but she wasn't out of tricks yet. Xion smirked as she thought, _'If I can't maneuver around him, then I'll just have to maneuver OVER him!'_

"I choose none of the above!" Xion announced as she jumped over Vanitas in an attempt to catch him off guard. However, it didn't go as she planned it in her head, because Vanitas then intercepted her jump and grounded her with a punch to the face, causing her to land at the edge of the cliff. Vanitas then did something that would really put Xion between a rock and a hard place; he slammed his Keyblade into the ground, disconnecting Xion's part of the cliff from the rest of it, causing Xion to plunge into the abyss below.

"That should be the last I'll see of her" Vanitas said to himself as he walked away, completely unaware of Xion clinging onto a rocky protrusion halfway down the cliff.

* * *

"Hey! Herc!" Phil called out to his Number One Champ in the lobby.

"Oh, there you are Phil. I was wondering where you went" Hercules said in a tired voice.

"I just came here to tell you that I'm subbing you out for this fight. You need your rest, and I've found a replacement that can handle the next monster easily enough" Phil said while pointing to Ventus, who was standing behind him.

"Is that you, Ventus? Where have you been for the last eleven years?"

"Places… but that's beside that point. Is it true that Phil over here's been overworking you and running you ragged?" Ven asked.

"You don't know the half of it" Hercules said with a sheepish half-smile.

"Enough jibber jabber! You need to get to resting up, and you have a Hydra to slay!" Phil yelled as he pushed Ventus into the arena.

'_I guess I can rest for a few minutes before helping Sora rescue Meg… I'm sure Ventus can handle that Hydra in there'_ Hercules thought as he sat down on a random pedestal.

* * *

'_If Vanitas thinks that he can get rid of me that easily then he's got another thing coming!' _Xion thought angrily as she continued her little rock climbing expedition. She was in arm's reach of the top when some of the rocks she was holding onto collapsed underneath her, causing her to lose her grip and scream as she fell. However, she didn't fall very far because when she opened her eyes, she saw a gloved hand holding onto her wrist. She then looked up and saw a man with black hair spiked back with only one bang in front of his face, and speaking of his face, he has a cross shaped scar on his left cheek.

"Don't worry, I've got you" the man said as he pulled her up effortlessly.

"Thanks" Xion said when she was got back onto her feet and put a little distance between herself and the ledge. She then asked him, "Who are you?"

"I'm Zack, I'm hopelessly lost, and since I did just save your life, you could at least tell me your name, and maybe instructions to the nearest exit from this pit of eternal despair?" introduced the man now known as Zack. **(Note: Zack is in his SOLDIER 1****st**** Class uniform from Crisis Core)**

"I'm Xion, and I'm also hopelessly lost."

Zack sighed, clearly disappointed that the person that he just rescued didn't know a way out of this place. He then decided to ask, "By the way, how did you get stuck on the edge of that cliff anyway?"

"I was fighting a guy called Vanitas, and I'm pretty sure you know how well that went!" Xion explained.

"It ended with you being thrown off a cliff?"

"That's the gist of it. By the way, what are you doing down here anyway?" Xion asked.

"I'm stuck here mostly because I came down here to find a friend, and then got stuck down here in the process…" Zack said.

"Why don't you tell me about it?"

"Well… the short version of it is that I'm actually from another world altogether. I'm only here because someone that my mentor and I were pursuing sucked us into a portal that brought us to this world. However, shortly after getting sucked in, and fighting our target upon our arrival here, I suffered a blow to the head that made me experience amnesia. (Period of amnesia takes place during Birth by Sleep) I pretty much just wandered around for a few months until I noticed an odd black feather floating in the breeze. It seemed familiar for some reason, so I decided to take a closer look, and when I did, I remembered why I was even here and took off to find my mentor. Then after searching for who knows how long, I found him and the person we were pursuing in a heated battle, and I tried to help in any way I could…" Zack said while trailing on at the end.

"Well, what happened next?" Xion asked.

"They both died… I was the only one that survived that battle. This sword that I'm carrying on my back (Buster Sword) used to be my mentor's sword, but he gave it to me in his final moments" Zack said with a sad face.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked" Xion apologized, not wanting to see her rescuer upset.

"It's alright; if I didn't feel like sharing my story then I wouldn't have said anything. Now we should get going. It's never a good idea to stay in one place for too long in the underworld, especially when you have that little underworld's curse affecting you" Zack said while walking off.

'_So that's the odd, weakening sensation that I've been feeling for the past few minutes, I guess that means my half hour is up'_ Xion thought before chasing after Zack.

* * *

'_Wow, this thing is ugly!'_ Ven thought as he jumped over the Hydra's tail and slashed it in a counterattack. The Hydra then attempted to bite Ven with its massive jaws, but was denied when Ventus sidestepped the attack and smashed his Keyblade into the beast's head with brutal force. The Hydra had a dazed look in its eyes at this point and probably couldn't see straight. Ven decided to end it upon seeing this and slashed the Hydra's head off, and started to walk out of the arena believing that his work was done. However, his walk was cut short when he heard movement coming from the supposedly slain beast and turned around.

* * *

"Are we even getting anywhere close to the exit?" Xion asked Zack as she followed his lead through the underworld.

"Dunno, I don't know the way out" Zack responded.

"Then why am I even following you?"

"Because you don't know the way out either?" Zack guessed.

"Oh, right" Xion responded sheepishly.

"Wait, be quiet… I think I hear people talking" Zack said as he put his gloved hand over Xion's mouth and tried to eavesdrop on the conversation that was occurring on the other side of a rock formation.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" a voice asked in complete confusion.

A second voice then sighed and said, "Let's see here… 'If the subject fails to respond, use aggression to liberate his true disposition'" a second voice said, as if he was reading something.

"What are they talking about? Who's over there? I can't see!" Xion whispered to Zack when she managed to free herself from Zack's grip.

"In that order, I'd say that I have no idea what they're talking about, the people over there are a brown-haired kid, a duck, a dog, and some guy in a black trench coat" Zack answered.

Xion immediately narrowed her eyes and thought, _'Organization XIII, and if I'm not mistaken, Sora, Donald, and Goofy too'_ before listening in and taking a peek as well.

"You're bizarre…" the brown haired person said while crossing his arms, Xion then confirmed this person as Sora and his traveling companions, but then stopped her thoughts when she saw the Organization member pull out a golden medallion with a cloud and lightning bolt imprint on it.

Upon seeing this, Goofy pointed at the Organization member, which Xion identified as Demyx and accused, "He's gotta be the thief!"

Demyx however, defended himself by responding with the words, "Now that's just plain rude!"

After saying this, the medallion started to glow when he held it above his head. Xion had no idea what it did, but it must have been a power up of some sort. Demyx then brought out his Sitar and summoned a mass of water clones while Sora brought out his Keyblade, Donald got his staff at the ready, and Goofy brought out his shield.

"Should we help?" Zack asked.

"Sure, why not?" Xion responded as drew her Keyblades, "I think it's time for Waterboy to get his ass kicked!"

Xion followed up her witty remark by jumping into the fray and slashing through about ten water duplicates before ending up back-to-back with Sora. She then asked, "So, how many have you taken down so far?"

"Thirty, and where did you come from?" Sora asked.

"No time for questions! Less talkey, more slashey!" Xion responded as she saw Zack pummeling a group of water duplicates with his bare hands. Xion wondered why Zack wasn't using his big-ass sword, but chose to dismiss that thought for the time being and come back to it later.

The little conflict with Demyx's water duplicates was rather short and uninteresting. Once all one hundred of them kicked the bucket, Demyx looked a little drained and staggered backwards while holding his left shoulder. He then looked at Sora and complained/pleaded, "Roxas, come back to us!" before bailing out by opening a dark corridor around himself and disappearing.

Sora then rested his Keyblade on his shoulder and said, "The guy is like a broken record!"

"Hey! It looks like he dropped something!" Zack said as he picked up a golden, coin shaped object.

"That's the Olympus Stone, the thing that guy stole from the gods of this world" Sora explained as he took it from Zack and held it over his head. The stone then did the exact same thing that it did for Demyx, except the light it emitted surrounded the entire group of five.

"So that's what that stone does…" Xion muttered as she noticed that the Underworld's curse lifted from her.

"So, what exactly are you doing down here anyway, Xion?" Sora asked.

"I'm looking for a friend of mine named Ventus, have you seen him? He's got spiky blond hair, is probably starving right now, and is a Keyblade wielder" Xion explained and described.

"I think I remember seeing someone like that a little while ago. He floored Cerberus with a single combo attack and ran off before we even realized what happened. I didn't get a good look at him because he was moving so fast, but I think that person might be him" Sora said.

"Did he use any wind based spells?" Zack asked.

"Yes!" Donald answered.

"Yep, that's him!"

"How did you know that Ven can use wind spells?" Xion asked Zack.

"Because I'm a friend of his too, and have seen him use them before" Zack answered.

"Oh, and what exactly are you doing here, Sora?" Xion asked.

"We're here to rescue a friend of Herc's, she was captured by Hades" Sora explained.

Upon hearing that Hercules has a friend that just so happened to be a girl (Quite possibly a girlfriend), Zack immediately chanted in his head, _'Herc's got a girlfriend! Herc's got a girlfriend!'_

"Well why don't we help you rescue her? But in return, you'll have to lead us to the way out of here" Xion said.

"Sure, now let's go" Sora responded while leading the way to an area known as 'the Lock.'

* * *

'_Why can't things just be easy for once?' _Ventus complained inwardly as he performed his **Air Rider **command ability while slashing at the Hydra's five heads in midair.

The Hydra was a real pest for Ven to deal with. Whenever he cut a head off, two took its place, so after cutting the beast's head off a few times, he chose to use a different tactic. Which was to stab it in the heart, but the problem with that was that he needed to find a way to distract the beast first. The reason for this was because whenever he got within striking position of the beast's heart, a head got in the way and prevented Ventus from dealing a fatal blow.

It wasn't until after he accidentally tricked two heads to tie themselves up that he realized how he was going to distract the monster. Ventus began to weave his way between the vicious monster's heads and tricked the heads into tying themselves up in knots until all of its heads started ignoring Ven and became more focused on fighting each other. This gave Ven the opportunity he needed to once again come within striking distance of the beast's heart, and this time, successfully stabbed it, causing all of the monster's heads to roar out in agony and then go limp. The Hydra's body then fell onto its side, and then remained motionless. It didn't even twitch, and was no longer breathing.

It was finally dead.

The crowd then erupted into cheers and applauded Ventus' bravery as he cancelled his **Air Rider **Command ability, landed on the ground softly, and dismissed his Keyblade. It was also at that moment that he noticed the crowd's cheering and waved to the crowd before walking back to the lobby.

* * *

Sora and the rest of the group arrived at 'The Lock', and the first thing that everyone saw was a stone slab with the imprint of a woman and a keyhole in front of a pillar of darkness.

Sora noticed this and unlocked the lock by shooting a beam of light from his Keyblade. Causing both the stone slab and the pillar of darkness to disappear, and left nothing but a ditch in the ground and a beam of light behind.

"That takes care of that. Now it's time to rescue Hercules's girlfriend!" Zack said while running into the light, with Xion and the rest of the group following behind him.

The group then found themselves in an odd looking room with a glowing white floor and ominous blue walls with a bone-like motif. The scenery didn't concern them however, because the first thing that they saw was Hades (flaming blue hair and all), and a woman in a pink dress with dark, cloudlike chains restricting the movement of her arms. Seeing this caused everyone to get into fighting stances and glare at the Underworld Tyrant.

Hades however, just laughed and said, "Now that's what I call a key" before adding, "Gee, thanks for your help! Now have a nice day" and disappearing in a puff of black smoke.

Meg looked relieved when Hades disappeared and the group withdrew their weapons, but then looked past the group and saw Pete and a group of bat-like Heartless behind them and warned them.

"Sora! Behind you!"

This made them turn around and then heard Pete laugh, "What's wrong? Can't fight in the Underworld? Awww, boo hoo hoo!"

The group however, just responded by drawing their weapons and Sora said, "Better think again!" right before Pete sicked the Heartless on the group.

The fight was pretty easy, considering the fact that the Heartless were mindless and Pete is a half-wit. It also got even easier due to the fact that Pete was easily distracted by Xion's fat jokes and Zack using him as an oversized golf ball whenever he put his barrier up! The only real problems they encountered was Pete summoning even more Heartless whenever he needed reinforcements, and they needed to protect Meg. That however, was solved when Hercules arrived on the scene, and got Meg out of there by summoning his flying horse, Pegasus and telling it to get her out of there. Sora and the others followed, but for some reason, Zack chose to stay behind.

* * *

Ventus was catching up with Phil in the lobby of the Coliseum when the two of them suddenly heard the crowd scream in terror. Both of them reentered the arena and saw the Hydra back on its feet, but it was also different. Its skin was now a malevolent dark purple with yellow streaks going down its necks, it also had black bat like wings with a red membrane, its eyes were glowing a malevolent yellow, and it had the Unversed symbol on its chest. However, it was who was sitting on the Hydra's center head that caught Ventus's attention.

"VANITAS! What are you doing here?" Ven shouted at his mortal enemy.

"Enjoying the fights, what else would I be doing in a Coliseum? However, I didn't exactly enjoy the ending of the last match. It was a little anticlimactic, wouldn't you say?" Vanitas responded.

"You know this weirdo?" Phil asked.

"I'd prefer it if I didn't! His name is Vanitas, and he's trouble with a capital "T"!" Ventus answered.

"Since I didn't enjoy your last fight very much, I decided to bring this beast back as an Unversed to see if your next fight will be a little more entertaining! I look forward to seeing how you fare, Ventus!" Vanitas mocked before disappearing into darkness.

"Dammit! Why can't I ever catch a break with that bastard around?" Ven cursed while summoning his _Fresh Breeze_ Keyblade in his usual backhand position, and Phil gave Ventus some room to work while the crowd evacuated the Coliseum. (Please note that I accidentally got the name of Ventus's default Keyblade wrong in chapter nine)

* * *

"Aren't you going to go too?" Hercules asked Zack.

"And miss all the action? Not a chance, Herc!" Zack responded.

"If you're going to help, you should at least draw your sword, it would probably be a waste if you didn't"

"Use causes wear, tear, and rust, and that's a real waste" Zack retorted.

"Now it sounds like you're being cheap!" Hercules said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, I guess I can be kinda cheap! Now let's go!" Zack shouted as he charged headlong into the group of Heartless, fists raised and ready to pummel.

Hercules on the other hand, wasn't doing all that well. He was taking a fair share of the Heartless down, but he also looked like he was barely able to stand. Zack noticed this and asked, "Are you alright Herc? You don't look so good."

"I'll be alright, after all… what do heroes need rest for?"

"They need rest to make sure they don't get themselves killed" Zack retorted flatly while punching a ghostlike Heartless in the face.

It was also at that moment when the rest of the group, minus Meg returned to back the two warriors up, making the battle relatively easy all over again. Xion and Sora slashed through the Heartless with their Keyblades like a knife through warm butter while Donald blasted his enemies with his magic, Goofy bashed his opponents with his shield, and Hercules and Zack pummeled Pete with their fists. They even played a short round of one-on-one Volleyball when Pete decided to bring out his barrier!

The only problem that the group had to worry about now was the cave-in that was currently in progress for some reason, but that was taken care of when Pete retreated; claiming that the place that he's in gives him the creeps. So when there was nobody left to fight, the group left before the place they were in fell on their heads.

* * *

The group managed to make it the entrance to the Underworld without incident, but was then interrupted by Hades popping up from out of nowhere.

"Well, if it isn't everyone's favorite hero washout! You really blew it this time!"

"Nobody likes a sore loser, Hades" Sora jabbed, but Hades quickly retorted by shouting, "Can it, Keyboy!"

"Then let me" Zack said before walking up to Hades and taunted, "Nobody likes a sore loser, Hades!"

"Have we met before?" Hades asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. However I really don't care if you forgot because I don't like you, but I'll refresh your memory anyway. My name is Zack Fair, Hero." Zack announced, causing Hercules to remember him. Hades however, still doesn't.

"Still doesn't ring a bell, but hey! I think that you guys should probably check on that Hydra that you let somebody else take care of, Wonderboy. I hear that some weirdo resurrected it after some keyguy took it down, and now things are really FALLING APART up there!" Hades mocked before disappearing.

"Hey! Get back here Flamehead!" Xion demanded right as Hades vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Hate to run, but I have another little diversion to attend to" Hades' voice called out from out of nowhere.

The group then hastily headed for the exit, causing Zack to rejoice and shout, "YES! FINALLY! FRESH AIR AND SUNSHINE, HERE I COME!" While running up the glowing stairs like a madman.

"How long has he been down here?" Sora asked Xion.

"He said that he was stuck down here for about eleven years" Xion answered.

"Yikes! How did he manage to survive down here for so long?"

"Dunno, but my guess is that it was sheer dumb luck."

* * *

Zack arrived on the scene first, and was greeted by the sight of the entrance of the Coliseum in shambles, and a mutated five-headed Hydra with wings shooting blasts of darkness at a blond headed blur holding an oversized key. The speedy fighter however, ran out of luck and got hit in the face by the mutated Hydra's tail when it swooped down. Zack then was able to get a good look at the person that was fighting the Hydra and realized that he is his old friend Ventus.

"Ven!" Zack called out to his friend as he rushed over to him.

"Ungh…" Ventus groaned as he tried to get up with Zack's support.

"Are you alright?" Zack asked.

"I've been better" Ven responded.

"You should take a break, Ven. Help is on the way, we'll have this mess cleaned up in no time! But until then, I'll hold ugly ginormous off!" Zack declared as he helped Ventus lean against the wall.

"Thanks Zack, great to see you again" Ven replied as Zack rushed towards the five-headed monstrosity.

It was also at that moment when the rest of the group showed up. Hercules blamed himself while Meg and Phil tried to convince him that it wasn't his fault, and Sora, Donald, and Goofy rushed in to help Zack. Xion on the other hand, was the only one to notice Ventus and rushed to his side to check him for any serious injuries.

"Are you alright, Ven?" Xion asked.

"I've been better, but this isn't anything that a cure spell can't fix" Ven responded.

"Then that's just what I'll do! **Cure!**" Xion said while casting a cure spell, healing Ven's injuries with a green glow of magical energy.

"Thanks, now let's kick that mutated monster's butt!" Ventus declared as he reentered the fray with Xion right behind him.

* * *

The Unversed Hydra was quite the tricky foe. Unlike a regular Hydra, whenever one head was cut off another head simply took its place instead of two which was a good thing. On the other hand, the beast is capable of flight, which is a bad thing because the only people in the group that are capable of flight would be Ventus when he's using his **Air Rider **Command ability, and whoever is on Pegasus' back at the moment. The fight was pretty much at a standstill because whenever the Hydra managed to knock somebody down, another person used a healing spell to help the fallen fighter back up. It wasn't until Xion got a brilliant idea on how to defeat the Hydra that they realized they even stood a chance.

"Hey Zack, I've got an idea!" Xion announced to the person closest to her at the moment.

"I'm all ears. What'd you manage to come up with?" Zack asked.

"Alright, this is how it'll work. Sora, Donald, Goofy, Ven, and I will distract the Hydra to the point that we will have its complete and undivided attention while you and Hercules will sneak up behind it. Herc will throw you onto that _thing_ if you can't reach it on your own, and you will use that big-ass sword of yours to slash that monster in half once you're in range" Xion explained.

"And how exactly are you guys going to distract it anyway?" Zack asked.

"Just leave that to me, now get going!" Xion commanded.

"Alright"

* * *

Xion's plan started with Sora, and Donald shooting lightning and fire based spells, Ventus shooting wind based spells, and Xion herself flinging her light magic at the flying Hydra. She even managed to skewer its center-right head with her light javelin (Her aim has either vastly improved, or it was a lucky shot), and Ven sent Goofy up at the Hydra with a wind-based spell so he could bash the Hydra's heads with his shield. Doing all of this easily distracted the flying five-headed Hydra from Zack and Hercules, who were now getting into their target position behind the Hydra's back.

"So what exactly is this plan that you have, Xion?" Sora asked.

While Sora asked his question, Xion noticed Zack and Hercules get into position and nodded to them, signaling them to start. She then answered Sora's question by saying, "Why explain it when you can watch it in 3… 2… 1… NOW!"

On that signal, Hercules threw Zack at high speeds onto the back of the five-headed and winged Unversed Hydra. It was there where he sunk his Buster Sword into the back of the Hydra, and then dragged it along its back until the Hydra's back was completely slashed open, bleeding clouds of darkness as he cut it open. Continuing onto the Hydra's center neck until that was sliced in half as well. Zack then ended the Hydra slaying attack by jumping off the dying monster's center head and landed safely on the ground while the beast exploded in a burst of darkness in midair.

* * *

The fight was finally over. Hercules was currently blaming himself for what happened while Meg, Phil, and Sora's trio tried to cheer him up. Xion's group on the other hand (Which is composed of Ventus, Zack, and Xion), is currently talking about what happened and what they're going to do next.

"So Vanitas was the one that resurrected and empowered that thing… do you think he's still here?" Xion asked.

Ventus then responded by saying, "Probably not, after all… he knows as well as we do that he can't take us all on by himself."

"You're definitely right about that, but now we have to figure out what we're going to do next. After all, we still have to find Mickey and Aqua" Xion said.

"Do we even know what worlds they're on?" Ventus asked before Zack interrupted.

"Umm, since you guys are going to be traveling to other worlds, would you mind helping me get back to my homeworld? I'm starting to feel a little homesick…"

Xion answered Zack's question by saying "Heh, sure thing, Zack! Just tell what it looks like and I'll get you there before you can say 'Slap me silly and call me Floopsy!'"

"Surely you're joking about that last part, Xion" Zack said.

"I'm not joking, I really can get you there that fast, and don't call me Shirly. Just tell me what the place looks like so we can get started."

"Ummm… let's see… I remember that the place had a really big castle, and the town connected to it had a bunch of gardens near it full of flowers. I remember that someone close to me really loved those…" Zack described.

Zack's description of his old home seemed oddly familiar to Ven as he pondered over Zack's description _'I think I remember visiting a place like that, but I forget what it was called…"_

"Hmm… you might need to give me a better description. There's a good chance that there could be a lot of worlds like that. Can you tell me anything else? Any people you know?" Xion asked.

Zack continued his description by adding, "My memory about it is a little fuzzy… I perfectly remember my mentor and friend Angeal, and his friend, Genesis, but they died on this world… Hmm… let's see now… I still can't remember any names, but I do remember two people. One of them is a guy spiky blond hair that'll remind you a Chocobo's butt, and the other is a girl that I remember going out on a few dates with before I left. I also remember buying her a pink ribbon on that date… she's the one that I said really loved the gardens…"

Xion smiled in recognition at Zack's description of his friends and chirped, "Alright! I have good news, and bad news, Zack!"

"Start with the bad news, please" Zack suggested.

"Okay, the bad news is that you probably won't recognize your homeworld due to the fact that the Heartless have ravaged the place for quite some time."

"That is bad news! Please tell me that the good news will make up for the bad news!"

"It might because the good news is actually good news for Ven and me because the good news is that your homeworld is also the world that Mickey landed on. Oh, and it's also my homeworld too!"

Ven decided to cut in at that point and said, "At least we know where our next destination is."

"Yep! Now all we have to do is say our goodbyes and then get out of here, and by 'we' I mean you two because I don't know anybody native to this world" Xion said while pushing Ven and Zack towards the rest of the gang.

* * *

"So where are you guys going next?" Sora asked Xion while Ven and Zack said their goodbyes to Hercules, Phil, and Meg… well… Ven said goodbye. What Zack said was more along the lines of teasing Hercules and congratulating him on getting a girlfriend.

"We just found out that Zack's homeworld is Hollow Bastion, so we've decided that's where we're going to go next" Xion explained.

"How did he get here anyway?" Sora asked.

"I think he said that the person that he and his mentor followed the person that they were chasing through a Dark Corridor that led them to this world."

"That would explain how he got here... Oh, and can I ask you one more question?"

"Depends on what it is" Xion responded.

"Why do you hate Organization XIII so much? I know they're evil and all, but they must have done something really bad to you to make you hate them so much" Sora asked.

Xion closed her eyes and thought for a moment before responding, "I'd rather keep that information to myself…"

"Okay, I understand. That question was probably a bit too personal, but another thing that I'd like to ask is why you look so familiar. I know that we haven't met before, with the exception of that incident at Hollow Bastion, but you still look like somebody I know… why can't I put my finger on it?" Sora asked while muttering that last part.

Xion just simply responded to Sora's last comment before taunting him, "I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually, but while you're doing that I've just noticed that Ven and Zack are ready to go. So I'm just gonna say, 'Kairi says hi' and be on my way!"

Xion then left by opening a Corridor of Light and dragged Ven and Zack into it while closing it behind them. Leaving a dumbfounded, confused, and speechless Sora behind with Goofy and Donald wondering what Xion said that confused Sora so much.

* * *

Ven and Zack fell out of the Light Corridor and onto a metal platform while Xion walked out of it in a calm and collected fashion.

"You do realize that you didn't have to push us, right?" Ven more stated then asked.

"I know! I just did it because I felt like it!" Xion responded before he noticed that Zack was staring at the ruined castle that they were standing at the foot of.

"Hey, Zack! Are you alright? You're just standing and staring at the place" Ventus asked.

"I am home…" Zack mumbled before falling onto his knees and started punching the ground while shouting, "YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! DAMN YOU… DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"

Xion chose to give him his moment of melodrama before getting Ven to help her drag Zack in the direction of town by the back of his shirt.

* * *

**Xion: How long has it been since the last update?**

**Author: Over two months…**

**Xion: And why did it take you two months to do this?**

**Author: Because I've been undermotivated…**

**Xion: WELL MAYBE THIS WILL MOTIVATE YOU! (Starts chasing the author around with a flamethrower and a shotgun)**

**Aqua: She won't really hurt him, will she?**

**Ven: Probably not**

**Mickey: I hope she doesn't, because we'll probably get cancelled if she does**

**Aqua: How did she get those things anyway?**

**Ven: She probably borrowed them from Yuffie**

**Aqua: Then where did Yuffie get them from?**

**Ven: Who knows?**

**Mickey: Okay, now who's going to say the review request?**

**Aqua: I'll do it. Please review, because there's a chance that the author's life will depend on it!**

**Author: SOMEBODY HELP ME! SHE JUST BURNED MY BULLETPROOF VEST OFF AND MELTED MY SHOES!**


	12. Master Ventus

**Author: I have big plans for this chapter**

**Xion: How big?**

**Author: Very big**

**Aqua: That's not very specific; can you at least tell us why you have big plans for this chapter?**

**Author: They are big because I plan on making it VERY dramatic.**

**Ventus: And how exactly will it be dramatic?**

**Author: Because it will have everything ranging from touching reunions to painful goodbyes**

**Xion: Am I even going to be playing a significant part in this chapter?**

**Author: No, not really. You'll just be an object of humor.**

**Aqua: When am I going to play a significant part in this story again?**

**Author: You're still stranded in Twilight Town, so you'll just have to be patient and wait until it's your turn to play a significant role again**

**Aqua: You still never told me why I'm stranded there!**

**Author: Your predicament has its purpose, now you just have to be patient and wait for it to happen**

**Aqua: And when will that be?**

**Author: Eventually…**

**Aqua: Am I even going to be doing ANYTHING interesting until then?**

**Author: Hmmm… I'll think of something… but until then, say the disclaimer, and tell them about the challenge, Ven!**

**Ventus: This weirdo does not own Kingdom Hearts… oh, and he told me to tell you guys that he has a challenge set up on his profile that he wants you guys to at least take a look at and consider taking it.**

**Xion: What does that challenge involve anyway? I forgot to look at it.**

**Ventus: It involves you being a big sister**

**Xion: (Looks thoughtful) Go on…~**

**(Author's note: There will be a very sad moment in this chapter, so prepare tissues)**

**(Another Author's note: I'm going to be using the English names for the Keyblades and Command Styles that will be in this story from now on.)**

**Fresh Breeze = Wayward Wind**

**Speed Rave = Fever Pitch**

**Fire Blazer = Firestorm**

**Air Rider = Sky Climber**

**The list goes on, but I think you get the point…**

Chapter 12

Master Ventus

Xion is not a morning person, she never was back when she was a Nobody, and most certainly is not one now. Her mornings in Hollow Bastion almost always start with Yuffie waking her up earlier than she wants to be woken up in a different way each day. One of her wakeup calls was a water balloon to the face, and another was a magically shrunken fog horn to the ear, but the point is that it always takes a lot to wake the Ex-Nobody.

Yuffie snuck into Xion's room as stealthfully as possible with some nefarious contraption hidden behind her back. However, she wasn't alone in waking Xion up this time. She managed to rope the recently returned Zack into this too. The two of them snuck to opposite sides of Xion's bed and whipped out a pair of air horns and pushed the buttons that released the compressed air and unleashed an insanely loud and unimaginably annoying noise that caused Xion to immediately jump out of bed, wide eyed, very alert, and VERY grumpy.

"Air horns? Really Yuffie?" Xion glared.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time" was Yuffie's response.

"Whatever, but did you really have to rope Zack into this too?"

"I actually volunteered to help!" Zack pointed out.

"You people are insane! There is no way that an actual human being can wake up at this hour and be wide awake without being woken up by someone like you Yuffie! You guys must be some sort of anomaly in the human race!" Xion ranted.

"That's what the morning person is!" Yuffie said in an upbeat tone.

Xion just threw her sheets over her head and shouted, "Don't care! I'm going back to sleep, and don't even think about waking me up until at least 10:00!"

Zack and Yuffie however, just put their free hands up and signaled 3… 2… 1…

* * *

***HOOONNK!***

That was the sound of Zack and Yuffie waking Xion up, which was shortly followed by a string of curses that would make Cid envious. Xion really isn't a morning person; her grumpy attitude in the morning is proof of that.

However, those air horns didn't just wake Xion up though, it also woke Ventus up. Ventus chose to take the couch for the night since he had no intention on sharing a room with Zack, and Merlin's house ran out of guest rooms. The day before when Xion returned was actually pretty eventful, Zack's memories of his old home returned to him by the second and he almost immediately started pointing out what changed and what hadn't when they reached town. Ven chuckled to himself when he remembered Zack running into Cloud and reacquainting himself with the Chocobo-haired warrior.

Ventus chose to take a walk before going back to confront a grumpy and half-asleep Xion. While walking, he chose to also remember the most touching moment that happened yesterday.

_-Yay! A Flashback!-_

_*** A Flower Blooming in the Slums from Crisis Core plays in the background***_

"_Zack? Is that you?" a soft voice gasped from behind Xion, Ven, and Zack. The group of three turned around and saw woman dressed in a white and pink dress and a pink bow in her auburn hair, holding it up in a ponytail._

_Zack's response when he saw her was a gasp of his own as he unblinkingly stared back at her before just barely gasping, "Aerith" under his breath._

_Ven and Xion chose to step aside and watch the scene unfold since Xion already knew that Aerith was the person that Zack talked about earlier, and Ven knew better then to interrupt a moment like this._

_The two just stared at each other for who knows how long as time froze between the two. Zack noticed that Aerith was older now and her eyes showed that she was no longer the innocent girl that spent the majority of her time playing in the town's flower gardens. She is now a confident woman that has been forced to fight when she didn't want to, has faced hardships that nobody should be forced to go through, and has gained wisdom through all that. However, her beautiful green eyes are still every bit as captivating now as they were eleven years ago._

_Aerith also noticed a few things about Zack that have changed and stayed the same. She noticed that he was older now, and more reserved then he was back when they were teenagers. He is also even stronger now than he was eleven years ago, not that she didn't expect that, and she also noticed that his brilliant blue eyes now contained something that they didn't contain when she last saw him… sadness. He must have lost something or someone precious to him while he was away._

_Then in a moment's notice, Aerith chose to make the first move and rushed towards Zack and embraced him while sobbing into his chest. Neither Ven nor Xion were able to figure out what Aerith was trying to say, if she was even saying anything at all. So they decided to give the two of them some privacy and walked away._

_-End Flashback and background music!-_

Ven smiled at the memory and continued his walk through the streets of Hollow Bastion, waving to random people every now and then. This world definitely reminded him of another world that he visited before, but couldn't quite put his finger on it. Then, deciding that it didn't really matter he tossed the notion aside and continued his walk, unaware of the mysterious figure in a black trench coat watching him from the rooftops.

'_Your test will begin soon, Ventus. It is almost time to see whether or not you are ready to show the Mark…'_

* * *

*BAM! SMASH!* "ALRIGHT! WE GET THE MESSAGE!"

What were those sounds? That was the sound of Xion beating the living daylights out of Zack and Yuffie…

*TUMBLE, THUMP, THUMP, **CRASH!*** "OW! GET OFF ME!"

And that was the sound of Zack and Yuffie tumbling down the stairs and Yuffie landing on Zack's back. The partners in crime then heard an *ahem* and looked up and noticed Tifa looking at the two with an amused smirk on her face and her hands on her hips.

"And what have we learned from this?" Tifa asked.

"Don't wake Xion up before ten because she's a monster in the morning?" Zack asked.

"Close enough" was Tifa's response as she helped Yuffie off Zack's back before scolding her, "and you should know better by now! Do you even remember what happened last time you woke Xion up like this?"

Yuffie had a contemplative look on her face before shivering and remembering the scorch marks from the event.

_-Yay! Another Flashback!-_

_***BOOM!* **_

_An explosion of white light blew the roof off Merlin's house as Xion cast Ultima in a grouchy and half-asleep rage._

_-Aww... Flashback's over...-  
_

"Please don't remind me!" Yuffie whined as she pulled herself up.

Tifa countered by saying, "Then don't do it again and just leave her alone around this time of day!"

Tifa's rant was then interrupted by Zack asking, "Has anyone seen Ven around lately?"

Cid, who is at his computer as always answered, "He went for a walk, don't know when he'll be back."

"Oh, well thanks for telling me… now what do I do? I've run out of things to do!" Zack complained loudly.

Cid then shouted back, "Then just find some Heartless and kick their asses! That way, you can help us out and get outta my hair at the same time!"

"Fine! Maybe I'll do just that!" Zack shouted back to Cid as he exited the Restoration Committee's base of operations.

* * *

The air around Ven fluctuated as he was taking his walk a little farther away from town then he probably should have. Ven sensed an unusual presence watching him, but did not know where it was coming from. It seemed like the presence was following him specifically, so he lead it to the Great Maw; which is a wide open area where nobody could get in the way if the mysterious presence decided to become hostile.

Ven looked around the vacant area, the canyon of purple rocks was completely void of all signs of life, but Ventus knew that he was being watched. The only problem was that his stalker was somehow able to hide out in the open.

Ventus then chose to call his stalker out, "I know you're there! Show yourself!"

_Show me…_

Ven turned around a full one-hundred and eighty degrees and saw a figure in a black trench coat with his hood covering his face, "Who are you? Are you a part of Organization XIII?"

_Show me that you are ready…_

"Ready for what?" Ven asked.

_Show me the mark; that you are worthy of the title…_

"What mark? What title? What are you talking about?" Ventus asked in confusion, but he didn't get a verbal answer. Instead, he was answered by the Mysterious Figure summoning two blue ethereal blades, both in a backhand position with a weird symbol that Ven has never seen before near the Mysterious Figure's hands. Ventus's response to that was instant as he summoned the Wayward Wind Keyblade and prepared to fight.

***Awesome Music Alert! Begin Playing "Mysterious Figure" From the Birth by Sleep Soundtrack!***

The Mysterious Figure made the first move by charging at Ventus and began slashing at him in a complex series of slashes and combined blade strikes. Ven barely managed to dodge all of the slashes, and was forced to then roll under two energy blades that were shot at him in the form of an X. The Mysterious Figure didn't give Ven any time to counterattack as he made three copies of himself and all four of them charged Ven at once. Ventus just barely managed to block and dodge the Figure's attacks as he backpedaled and parried each of their attacks, but unfortunately, he wasn't able to completely avoid getting hit and was slightly damaged from the black coated mystery's assault. However, he was able to finally get some breathing room and immediately used it to cast a tornado spell on the quad of Figures, sucking all four of them into the powerful spell and dispelling three of the four Mysterious Figures.

The cloaked mystery wasn't done yet though, while he was still in midair from Ven's tornado spell he summoned a glowing whip and used it to grab Ven and throw him into the air and into attacking distance. However, Ven didn't take that lying down and blocked the Mysterious Figure's attack the very second that he was within striking range, and then counterattacked with a foot to the face and a Keyblade to the gut. This sent the Figure careening down to the ground, but the fight was still far from over because the cloaked figure fought back by shooting back up at Ven like a comet with a shocking aura surrounding him; brutally mauling the Keyblade wielder upon impact. Things still weren't over yet because the Mysterious figure then turned around for a second run and sent Ventus crashing into the ground, seriously injuring the Keyblade wielder.

Ven wasn't going to go down without a fight though, the Mysterious Figure was now charging at the Keyblade wielder when light started to surround Ventus as he held his Keyblade up in the air as he incanted, _**"Faith!"**_ Pillars of light surrounded Ven and then spiraled outwards, impacting the Mysterious Figure as the light that was radiating from Ven healed the Keyblade wielder. Ventus then returned to the offensive as he activated his **Fever Pitch **command style and relentlessly assaulted the cloaked figure and forced his opponent on the defensive with a quick succession of lightning fast slashes and a few lightning and fire enhanced strikes.

Ven's assault didn't last forever though, because the Mysterious Figure fought back with a vengeance by surrounding himself with three pillars of fire and charged at Ven. Ventus was forced to roll out of the way continuously as the Mysterious Figure was both charging at him with flames surrounding himself, but was also slashing at him too. Eventually, the flames died down and the Mysterious Figure chose to change tactics again, so he summoned dozens of orbs of light that shot deadly laser beams at Ven, forcing him to continue rolling out of the way, just narrowly dodging both the lasers and the cloaked figure that is still pursuing and slashing at Ven with unrelenting force.

The Mysterious Figure's barrage soon ended, giving Ventus another opening to attack, which he exploited without a second thought and executed another **Fever Pitch** enhanced rush before upgrading his Command Style to the **Wingblade** Command Style and then continued his ruthless assault with six energy blades hovering behind his back and using two of them at a time. Ven was now matching the Mysterious Figure blow for blow and neither was giving the other so much as an inch of ground to gain.

Both sides were cut and burned in a multitude of places, even if it was hard to see the burns on the Mysterious Figure it was still obvious that he wasn't going to last much longer at this pace. Ven wasn't looking very good either, he still had his **Wingblade **Command Style activated, and was covered in cuts, burns, and dirt. He wasn't going to last much longer at this pace either, but refused to give up. Ven had to end this battle soon or he was probably going to lose, so he bolted towards the Mysterious figure and leaped above him and activated **Wingblade**'s Finisher and dropped the six energy blades in a hexagonal formation around the Mysterious Figure and then slammed his fist down in the center while the ground was glowing from the energy the blades were giving off.

The blast of energy that the finisher gave off was brilliant and sent the Mysterious Figure flying back in a flurry of light and feathers, but still wasn't enough to finish the powerful foe off. He then fought back by creating an orb of energy between his two hands until the molten orb was the size of a bowling ball, and then shot it at Ventus at amazing speeds. The orb then exploded in a dazzling display of energy with an impressive blast radius.

Ven wasn't anywhere to be seen when the smoke cleared, but his presence was made known again when he descended from the sky at impressive speeds and planted his foot on the Mysterious Figure's face before shooting himself back up into the air, and then repeated this process four more times before he slammed his Keyblade into the ground and released gale force winds that sent the Mysterious Figure flying back until he hit the side of the canyon and went limp. He did not vanish into thin air, and did not get up. He was finally beaten and Ventus wasn't in any position to complain.

***End Music and replace it with Ventus' Theme***

Ven approached his defeated opponent and removed his hood when he was within arm's length, and what he saw shocked him beyond all belief. The man that he just defeated was an aged man that had a few scars and facial hair on his face and a bit of his graying hair fell in front of the right side of his face and the rest was tied back in a spiky ponytail. This man was none other than Master Eraqus, the Keyblade Master that trained Terra, Aqua, and Ventus.

"M-Master Eraqus!" Ven stuttered out as his old master smiled at him.

"You've grown up… Ventus" Eraqus replied with a smile before convulsing into a coughing fit.

"Why did you do this Master?" Ventus asked with tears threatening to escape.

"To test you… to see if you were finally ready…" Eraqus answered before coughing again.

"Ready for what?"

Eraqus smiled and answered, "Ready… to become a true Keyblade Master… and you passed, Ventus. I now grant you the title of a true master of the Keyblade: Master Ventus. You have shown the _Mark of Mastery_."

To say that Ventus was shocked was an understatement. His master, who he has long believed to be dead returned, challenged him to a duel, and is now telling him that he is now a TRUE Keyblade Master. He was speechless, he didn't know what to say, and he was pretty sure that he was holding his breath too.

It wasn't until he noticed that Eraqus was fading away that he started to breathe normally again and gasped, "What's happening to you, Master Eraqus?"

"This is what happens… when a Nobody uses up all of its power…"

Ven gasped again and asked, "A Nobody... how did this happen to you?"

Eraqus answered, "It happened when Xehanort killed me eleven years ago… *cough* my heart was released, and my body faded away… *cough* only for me to return as a being with no heart, and no purpose… a Nobody … *cough cough cough* it wasn't until you reappeared that I found my purpose as a Nobody, and that was to see if you were finally ready to become a True Keyblade Master. So I tested you, and you passed… *cough cough cough*"

"So now what? You're just going to fade away and die? I won't let that happen, Master!" Ven ranted as tears started to finally escape his eyes, but Eraqus just laughed hollowly.

"Master Eraqus… died eleven years ago… I'm just his shadow… a remnant… destined to fade away when I become useless and am no longer needed."

Ven wasn't going to just take this and watch his Master just roll over and die without even trying to fight back, so he shouted back, "You're not useless! Not to me, Aqua, or Terra! We still need you!"

Eraqus just laughed hollowly again and faded a bit more before saying, "The three of you are stronger than you think, you don't need my guidance anymore. What you need to succeed and protect what is precious to you is already inside yourself. I should know because I'm the one that trained you! Listen to me, Ventus. You are a young man now, and you no longer need me to hold your hand and point you in the right direction, you are more than capable of doing that yourself now! I have taught you everything that I know, you don't need me anymore and you know it!"

"But-"

"No buts Ventus! I know that saying goodbye is not easy, it never is, but you and I both knew that this would happen someday. Every beginning has its end so that another new beginning can happen. I know it's hard, Ventus, but you must move on if you are to stop Xehanort. He's still out there… waiting… biding his time until he resurfaces again. I'm sorry that I cannot help you any further, but I know that you can stand on your own without my help. I know that you have the strength needed to put an end to Xehanort's plans. I only wish that I could be there to see it happen…"

"Master Eraqus!" Ventus cried out, no longer bothering to hold back his tears any further.

"Goodbye… Ventus… my only regret is that I won't be able to see all of my students' smiling faces one last time…" Eraqus then closed his eyes and breathed his last before he vanished completely, leaving nothing but a keychain that looked similar to Ventus's Lost Memory keychain except the red heart is complete instead of partially shattered, and the wind motif is pure white instead of ivory.

"MASTER ERAQUS!" Ventus shouted the name of his now fully deceased master to the heavens, mourning the death of a great man.

* * *

Somewhere in an unknown cranny of Ansem's castle a dark corridor opened, and Vanitas stepped through it.

'_So this is the castle of Ansem the Wise… looks like its seen better days. The whole place is in shambles! Not that I care! The whole place will probably be completely redecorated by the time I'm done with it if my suspicions about this place are correct. If I'm right, then the Dark Sorceress of time, Ultimecia will possess the Sorceress Rinoa as soon as I either destroy the special chamber that she's locked herself away in, or drag her out of it… Heh, I have a feeling that this is going to be fun!'_ Vanitas thought to himself as he wandered the corridors of the partially destroyed castle.

* * *

'_I need some time alone…' _Ven thought to himself with a tired look on his face as he stared at the keychain that Master Eraqus left behind. Ventus then summoned his armor by touching the grey and green bit of armor on his left shoulder and shot a blast of magic from his Keyblade into the sky, creating a portal to the Lanes In-between. He then threw his Keyblade into the air and summoned his Keyblade Rider, which is shaped like a tricked out hover board. He then hopped on it and rode it through the portal that he made in the sky.

* * *

**Author: And that's another chapter down!**

**Ventus and Aqua: YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY EVIL!**

**Aqua: You brought Master Eraqus back, only to kill him again!**

**Ventus: And to make things worse, you made me watch the whole thing up close and personal!**

**Author: You think you would have learned by now that all great authors are evil in their own special way.**

**Aqua: It doesn't matter! The point is that you just killed off Master Eraqus!**

**Ven: What was the point of all that anyway?**

**Author: I have a method to my madness…**

**Xion: ANYWAY… while these three duke it out, please review or I'll be forced to shove an Ultima spell up your ass.**


	13. Ultimecia and Rinoa

**Xion: So what happens now? Vanitas is going to do something to this Rinoa person, but what?**

**Aqua: How should I know? I haven't even made a single appearance in the last two chapters?**

**Leon/Squall: All I know is that this Vanitas character is a dead-man if he goes anywhere NEAR Rinoa!**

**Xion: Leon? How'd you get here?**

**Author: I invited him.**

**Aqua: Has anyone seen Ven?**

**Xion: I was about to ask the same thing. I haven't seen him since the last chapter.**

**Author: I'm sure he'll show up eventually, so anyway, Disclaimer time! Squall! Take it away!**

**Leon/Squall: It's LEON!**

**Author: Whatever scar-face**

**Leon/Squall: Tch, the author doesn't own anything**

**Author: I own stuff! It's just that the stuff I do own are not relevant to any of my stories.**

**Leon/Squall: Whatever…**

**(AN: I HATE SCHOOLWORK!)**

**(AN: The music in this section will be Final Fantasy VIII based)**

Chapter 13

Ultimecia and Rinoa

Deep within the depths of Ansem's castle a dog wandered with her nose near the ground, sniffing around for something. What the dog is looking for is anyone's guess. The dog is a half German shepherd, half Border collie mix and has a collar around its neck with the name _'Angelo' _engraved on a tag.

Angelo continued to sniff around and search for something until she finally found her target walking down a hallway a floor below where she currently stood. She growled at the dark masked intruder in anger before turning around and bolting back in the direction she came from and eventually stopped at a wall. She then scratched at it for a few seconds while whimpering until the wall opened up and revealed a smiling man with red hair in a small pony tail in a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and a tan trench coat.

"Hey there, Angelo. What's wrong?" he asked as he knelt down to the dog's level.

Angelo whimpered pointed her head in the direction that she came from and yapped a few times before asked, "There's something down that way that you want me to check out?"

She yapped once in confirmation.

"Alright then, you stay here and keep Rinoa company while I see what it is" the man said while he grabbed his rifle from a rack next to the hidden door and let the dog in while he exited the room and closed the door.

Angelo then trotted over to a small doggy door that was placed next to a large white door and crawled through it to enter a large white room. The room is rather sparse and only has the bare necessities, but it is more than enough for the one that willingly locked herself inside this place.

"Angelo, you're back!" a woman with raven colored hair with a few brown streaks in it called out.

Angelo turned her head to the direction of her mistress and barked happily before bounding over to her. She was then patted on the head and given a treat like she was normally given every time she returned from her daily patrol.

* * *

"Alright, now let's see just what spooked Angelo…" the cowboy muttered to himself as he looked around another corner cautiously and saw nothing… again… "I'm beginning to feel like this is just another wild goose chase."

However, his musings were interrupted when he finally heard footsteps and thought, _'Well, I've been wrong before!'_

The cowboy marksman readied his gun as he waited for his target to turn around the corner and his eyes widened when his target showed up.

'_This guy looks like he means business! I'll need to take him out quick or he's probably going to kill me on sight!'_ Thoughts like this are to be expected when you see a dark figure in a pitch-black mask and a black and red bodysuit walking in your general direction.

* * *

Vanitas wasn't making much progress in his search for Sorceress Rinoa. In fact, the only thing that he did know is that the chambers that she locked herself away in is somewhere in this castle, and things only got worse when he suddenly found himself being held at gunpoint by a cowboy in a tan trench coat.

"Hold it right there, intruder" the cowboy deadpanned, "Just what do you think you're doing in a place like this?"

Vanitas responded by saying, "I don't need to answer to you" and then vanished in a burst of speed and reappeared in the air behind the cowboy with his Void Gear Keyblade drawn.

**(Start "Force your way" from Final Fantasy VIII)**

The cowboy felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise as warning alarms went off in his head, telling him to roll out to the way, which he did less than a split-second after the intruder disappeared. It was a very good thing that he did because when he turned around he saw Vanitas with his Keyblade stuck in the ground where he was less than a second ago.

"I'll be asking the questions now" Vanitas spoke, "now tell me, where can I find Sorceress Rinoa?"

The cowboy's eyes widened when he heard who Vanitas is searching for and immediately opened fire on the dark Keyblader. Vanitas just smirked smugly behind his mask at this and deflected the bullets with his Void Gear before disappearing again.

"Pathetic!" Vanitas insulted as he tried to bring his Keyblade down on the cowboy, who barely managed to roll out of the way again.

"Why are you looking for Rinoa?" the cowboy asked as he placed a glowing red bullet in his gun.

Vanitas smirked at this new information, "Oh, so you do know where she is! That'll make this a whole lot easier! Just tell me where she is, and I'll let you live."

"Why don't you just go to hell first!" the cowboy shouted as he shot a stream of fire out of his gun, managing to slightly burn Vanitas, but not do any significant damage.

"All you're doing is wasting your energy!" Vanitas shouted back as he shot fireballs from his Keyblade, and then jumped in the air and shot sparks of black electricity from his free hand at the cowboy. The cowboy barely managed to dodge the fire, but got hit by the odd electricity and was stunned for a brief moment. This was all the time Vanitas needed to kick the modern day cowboy in the gut, flooring the gunslinger.

"Is that all? I was expecting you to put up more of a fight!" Vanitas taunted, pretending that he didn't see the cowboy insert a glowing bullet into his gun, "Well, I might as well end it now."

Vanitas raised Void Gear into the air, giving the cowboy the opening that he was looking for. He raised his gun and shot a massive stream of white energy at Vanitas **(Pulse Ammo: Hyper Shot)**, supposedly blowing the dark Keyblader away through the wall and out of the castle.

**(End music)**

"That got 'im!" the cowboy whispered to himself. He then winced when he realized just how hard Vanitas kicked him in the gut and thought, _'It's a real good thing that I caught him off guard or I'd be a goner!'_

* * *

Vanitas hid in the shadows as he saw the cowboy walk away and thought; _'Now I just have to follow him and I'll know exactly where the sorceress is!'_

Vanitas then chuckled darkly to himself as he watched the cowboy unknowingly lead him to Sorceress Rinoa.

* * *

It is now just a little past 10 O'clock, meaning that Xion has finally woken up and is now downstairs with the rest of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. Zack completely freaked out at first when Xion showed up downstairs and begged her to spare him. All Xion did was look at him with a look of absolute confusion, stating that she had no idea what he was talking about.

"You mean you don't remember earlier this morning? When Yuffie and I woke you up with air horns and you beat us up for waking you up so early?" Zack asked.

Xion responded, "I don't remember any of that, are you sure you didn't dream it?"

"The bruises you gave Yuffie and me say otherwise. How could you not remember something like that?"

Xion thought for a moment before saying, "Maybe I just can't remember the things I do when I'm half-asleep."

Yuffie decided to join in the conversation and say, "That's probably it because out of all the times I woke you up before 10 O'clock, you haven't remembered any of them. You can't even remember the one when I woke you up with a miniature fog horn, and you responded by blowing the roof off the house with an Ultima spell in an attempt to get me to let you sleep!"

"So **that's **why the roof was missing and everyone was avoiding me that morning!" Xion said in realization while some people in the room sweat dropped anime style.

* * *

*Sigh* "Just another day in self-imposed captivity…" Rinoa sighed to herself as she petted Angelo on the head. Angelo whimpered in sympathy, feeling Rinoa's pain.

"But it isn't all that bad… I still have you, Irvine, Tifa, and Squall looking out for me. That's something, right?" Rinoa asked, not really expecting an answer while Angelo just barked in confirmation.

The door to the room then opened while Irvine walked in, wincing in pain and holding a hand over his gut. Rinoa gasped at the state Irvine returned in and asked, "What happened, Irvine? Who did this to you?"

"Some masked freak in dark clothing kicked me in the gut pretty hard, but I took care of him" Irvine replied with a pained chuckle while Rinoa grabbed a potion from a pocket in her blue duster sweater and gave it to Irvine. He muttered a 'thanks' before chugging the magical concoction.

"What was that person doing here anyway?" Rinoa asked.

Irvine answered, "He probably wants to drag you out of this chamber so that sorceress from the future can possess you.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing that you kicked him out of here then because that now makes one less person like that in the world" Rinoa responded.

Irvine however, was not fully convinced that Vanitas is gone. He kept his guard up the entire time as he talked to the good sorceress, "I'm not so sure I managed to kill him. It's possible that I might have only delayed him."

"What makes you say that?" Rinoa asked.

"He was in complete control of the entire fight when I encountered him. I only won because I caught him off guard, but that might not have been enough to kill him."

"So what are you going to do now?"

Irvine answered, "I'm gonna go find him and settle things with him before everything gets out of hand."

"Be careful Irvine, you're one of the few friends I have left" Rinoa called out in worry as Irvine opened the door to the observation room. However, he didn't manage to get that far because the door that lead to the hallway outside the observation room was knocked down in a burst of black flames. Behind the black flames, Vanitas strode in and darkly chuckled out, "Knock-knock…"

"Angelo, GO! Get Squall and whoever else you can find! We need all the help we can get!" Rinoa shouted out, making her pet dog dart past Vanitas and out of the castle in record time.

Vanitas just chuckled darkly at the sight of Rinoa's desperate attempt at getting help as he allowed the dog to pass and dodged a bullet that Irvine shot at him. Vanitas then pushed Irvine aside and kicked his gun to the other side of the room as he progressed towards Rinoa.

"What do you want with me" Rinoa demanded as she grabbed her Blaster Edge weapon from a nearby desk and aimed it at the intruder.

Vanitas chuckled at Rinoa's attempt at resistance and responded, "It's not what _I_ want, but what Ultimecia wants. She wishes to possess you so that she can achieve _Time Compression_, while I just simply wish to see the true power of a sorceress firsthand."

"I won't let that happen!" Rinoa shouted as she shot the bladed weapon from her blaster edge at Vanitas, but the Dark Keyblade wielder jumped out of the blade's path effortlessly. Vanitas then proceeded to let out his infamous evil laugh and said, "So you wish to resist to the end? Alright then! More fun for me!"

* * *

"Hey! Where'd all my _'Caf-POW' _drinks go?" Yuffie demanded as she proceeded to raid the fridge in an attempt to find her caffeinated beverage.

"I drank them all!" Xion responded with a smile as she hopped in place while reading a book on Time Magic (The one that she 'borrowed' from the Twilight Town Mansion).

"WHY? WHY DID YOU DRINK ALL OF MY _CAF-POW_?" Yuffie demanded with anime style waterfall tears running down her face.

"Because you ate all my ice cream while I was gone" Xion responded while still hopping in one place due to the sugar rush she was experiencing and putting her Time Magic book in a jacket pocket.

"So you did it all in the name of _revenge_?" Yuffie seethed.

"Yep!" Xion chirped before leaving behind a Xion shaped dust cloud as she bolted through the door. Yuffie however, wasn't going to take this lying down and shouted, "You get back here right now, Xion! I'm not through with you just yet!"

Xion however, didn't hear Yuffie because she was already about half a mile away from Merlin's house. That's the power of a caffeinated sugar-high for ya! She would have even gotten a good distance further away, if she didn't run straight into Leon's back, effectively knocking him over and causing him to land flat on his face.

Leon then proceeded to get back up with a groan and looked at Xion with a rather put off look on his face and asked, "Do I even need to ask what that was for?"

Xion then proceeded to look sheepish and apologized, "Sorry, Leon. It was an accident. You see, I was on a sugar-high, wasn't looking where I was going while I was running away from Yuffie, and I think you know where that got me."

"Do I even want to know why you were on a sugar-high?" Leon asked rhetorically.

"Nope!" Xion chirped before a dog ran up behind Leon and began to tug at his pants leg and whine. Xion, being both on a sugar-high and a girl, proceeded to coo at the cuteness of the situation and said, "Aww, I didn't know you had a pet dog, Leon!"

Leon groaned at Xion's behavior and answered, "I don't, it belongs to someone else." However, on the inside Leon thought, _'What is Angelo doing here? Rinoa never sends her this far from the castle because of the Heartless infestation. Did something happen?'_

Angelo then let go of Leon's pants leg and yapped before taking off in the direction that she wanted them to go, turned around, and then yapped at Leon again.

"I think it wants us to follow it" Xion translated.

Leon just grunted in agreement as he took off after Angelo with Xion close behind.

* * *

"What happened here?" Leon gasped out to nobody in particular as he surveyed the damaged hallway. There were scorch marks riddling the walls and floor, and there were slash marks anywhere imaginable.

Xion replied, "Either somebody didn't like this hallway, or there was one heck of a battle here."

Leon however, ignored the remark since Xion was clearly joking and continued to follow Angelo down the hallway until he turned around a corner and saw Irvine face-down on the floor with his tan trench coat riddled with slashes and burned in a few places, also, his hat was lying on the ground next to him.

Angelo rushed to Irvine's side, sniffed, and then whined as Leon flipped the cowboy over and wake him up, "Irvine, wake up!"

The gun slinging cowboy stirred and groaned in pain before mumbling out, "Don't… worry about… me… Rinoa… help her…"

"What happened?" Leon asked urgently.

Irvine was a little more awake now due to Xion casting a small cure spell and responded, "Some guy in a black mask attacked us… said he was going to… to have that _sorceress from the future_… possess Rinoa… and help her achieve Time Compression."

Xion looked at Leon and noticed that his face visibly paled and looked chalk white, "Umm… can somebody please tell me what's going on here? I'm lost, who's Rinoa, and what's this talk about a sorceress from the future?"

"I'll explain later, right now I need to know where they went! Irvine, do you know where they went?" Leon asked.

Irvine managed to get into a sitting position and put his hat back on his head as Xion continued to heal him and said, "I vaguely remember that guy in the mask saying something about the _'Heartless Castle'_ so my guess is that they probably went there to prepare that Time Compression spell."

Xion chose to talk now and asked, "You mentioned that guy in the mask before, tell me, was he wielding a gear-like Keyblade?"

"Yeah, do you know him?"

Xion spat, "I wish I didn't, his name is Vanitas and he's probably one of the strongest and most maniacal opponents you'll ever meet."

Irvine cringed as Xion helped him up and said, "Sounds like trouble, and you say that we'll probably have to fight him?"

"If he's working with that sorceress from the future, then we probably will" Leon answered.

"I wish we didn't have to fight him. He almost gutted me like a fish earlier" Irvine mumbled while Xion finished up her healing session with a Curaga spell.

"And we're done. So where are we going next?" Xion asked Leon.

Leon answered, "The _Heartless Castle_, that Vanitas character did say something about that place, right?"

Irvine nodded as he rested his rifle against his shoulder.

"Then that's where we're going" Leon finished as he took off running with Xion and Irvine right on his tail.

'_Sorceress from the future… I've heard about that somewhere before… but where?'_ Xion asked herself as she followed Leon and Irvine.

_-Flashback!-_

_"I do not know the identity of the other one, all I really know is that the other enemy is not from this time and has once attempted to take over this timeline by possessing the body of someone with similar abilities from this timeline. The poor person had to be sealed away for the time being to prevent the enemy from gaining the upper hand, but that seal has been weakened from the time of darkness and will escape soon. I suggest that you keep an eye on Hollow Bastion and maybe brush up on some time magic for the time being."_

_-End Flashback-_

'_Is this what Master Yen Sid was talking about? Is this sorceress from the future what Master Yen Sid warned me about? She definitely fits the description…'_ Xion thought this, but was promptly thrown out of her musings when she ran into Irvine's back and toppled him over.

"Hey, get off me!" Irvine complained while Xion countered, "I wouldn't have run into you if you didn't stop running, where are we now anyway?"

Leon answered, "The Dark Depths."

"Alright, now how are we going to get into the Heartless Castle?" Xion asked while looking at the giant castle surrounded by countless heartless.

"Yeah, you got any ideas, Squall?" Irvine asked.

"It's LEON! And I'm hoping that Xion could open one of her light portals to get us there" Leon answered.

"But I've never been there before, I can't use my light portals to a place I've never seen before" Xion informed the group.

Leon thought for a moment and weighed his options before a newcomer spoke up, "Then maybe she could use her portals to take you to the front door? She can see that much, right?"

Xion turned around and saw Tifa standing behind the group, waiting for an answer. Xion chose to speak up first, "Tifa! What are you doing here?"

Tifa answered, "I saw you three running in this direction at a pretty fast pace and decided to see why you guys were in such a rush. So can one of you three tell me what's going on?"

Irvine chose to answer this one, "Long story short, that sorceress from the future finally managed to possess Rinoa."

Tifa was shocked by this revelation and shouted, "WHAT? How did this happen?"

Leon answered, "Some dark Keyblade wielder named Vanitas attacked them and took Rinoa out of her protective chamber, and because of that, that sorceress from the future was able to take over her body."

"I see… well, at least I'm all caught up now. So then, are we all set to go? There isn't going to be any turning back once get in there." Tifa asked.

Everyone nodded and Xion turned to get a good look at where the front door of the Heartless Castle should be. She then turned to the group and said, "Alright then, let's get this show on the road!"

She then opened a light portal and everyone stepped through it one by one.

* * *

The group of four exited the light portal and found themselves staring at the monstrously large double doors that were the entrance to the Heartless Castle.

"So this is it… I wonder what we'll be facing in there…" Tifa wondered out loud.

Xion responded, "I don't have the slightest idea, but things will probably turn into hell in a handbasket pretty quickly."

Leon then chose to input, "There's only one way to find out, and that's by going in there and seeing for ourselves. Now let's go!"

After Leon's order, the whole group pushed with all their might and managed to open one of the double doors enough to enter the grounds of the Heartless Castle. Upon entering, the group saw what looked like a mechanical lift and got on it. The lift then took the group to what looked like the entrance to the castle itself; however, the group was quickly met with interference. Said interference would be the Unversed, a large group of Bruisers and a giant creature that looked like its arms were restrained by chains, and its legs were restrained by what looked like some sort of gibbet (Iron Imprisoner I). To make things even worse, Vanitas appeared from out of a dark corridor behind the Iron Imprisoner and began to taunt the crew.

"So, I'm guessing that you're here to _save _Sorceress Rinoa? Heh, why bother? She's under the control of Sorceress Ultimecia now. She'll never be able to hear any of your voices ever again!"

Leon chose completely break character and blew up in Vanitas's face and shouted, "Shut up! We won't know that unless we try! Now move out of the way or I'll _make _you move!"

Vanitas scoffed at Leon and summoned his Void Gear Keyblade while Leon brought his Revolver gunblade into his attack position and commanded, "Irvine, Tifa, Xion! You three handle whatever those things are, I'll deal with Vanitas!"

Everyone in the group agreed and followed orders; nobody dares to ever go against Leon's orders when he gets _this_ serious.

***Begin playing Man with the Machine Gun***

Tifa, Irvine and Xion easily shot, pummeled, and cut through the Bruiser Unversed easily enough. It was the Iron Imprisoner that was the real problem. It used that weird gibbet like thing as a weapon and slammed the three back and continued to progress towards the three. It was at this point that the group then chose to create a triangle formation and attacked from all three sides. Xion and Irvine shot the giant Unversed with bullets and holy fire, luring it towards Tifa who snuck up behind it and slammed it in the back with her most powerful Final Heaven attack, causing the beast to fall face first onto the ground.

This however, was not enough because the Unversed floated back up into the air and began shooting lasers from the bottom of its gibbet, forcing the team to keep their distance until the Unversed changed tactics again. Which it did after approximately fifteen seconds because the creature stopped firing lasers and summoned an iron cage that sunk into the ground, and then popped out of the ground below Tifa a few seconds later, trapping her in the cage. While Tifa was held up in the cage, Irvine decided to insert a glowing green bullet into his rifle and shouted, "Try this on! **Armor Shot!**" Irvine was now shooting large green energy bullets from his rifle, and the attack wasn't called the armor shot for nothing because the bullets were completely breaching the Iron Imprisoner's defenses. Causing the monster to recoil from the damage it was taking.

Xion then took this opportunity to jump onto the Iron Imprisoner's back and climbed up to its right shoulder, which was rather difficult due to how much it was recoiling from the pot-shots Irvine was taking on the beast. Anyway, now balancing on the Iron Imprisoner's shoulder Xion went for the kill and jumped onto the Unversed's head, summoned her Keyblades, and slammed both blades tip first into the Unversed's skull. Causing it to release an otherworldly cry of anguish and flail around wildly until it threw Xion off its head off like a rag doll before it collapsed and hit the ground with a thud before disappearing in a cloud of flames and darkness.

The three heaved out a sigh of relief as the powerful Unversed disappeared and Tifa was released from the cage that she was trapped in. The group then heard the sound of metal clashing against metal and saw Vanitas and Leon locked in combat using nothing but their blades, feet, and the occasional fist. Vanitas is without a doubt faster than Leon, but what Leon lacked in speed he made up for with experience because he knew exactly when to roll out of the way when Vanitas disappeared and reappeared behind him. He also managed to prove that he was an even match for Vanitas in the department of brute strength when Leon and Vanitas clashed blades and tried to push the other backwards.

***End Music***

It was when Tifa, Irvine, and Xion moved to assist Leon when Vanitas jumped away from the group and blasted entrance to the castle open with a blast of dark fire and said, "If you want to save the sorceress Rinoa so badly, go ahead. The four of you have proven that this will at least be an interesting show to watch!"

Vanitas proceeded to open a corridor of darkness around himself and vanished to who knows where.

The group didn't waste any time and immediately headed for the opened double doors and entered Ultimecia's temporary lair.

* * *

***Begin playing Premonition from Final Fantasy VIII***

The group entered the Entrance Hall of the castle (The place Sora reclaimed his Keyblade in KH) and saw a woman in a blue duster sweater glaring at them in disgust with evil yellow eyes.

"Humph! So I'm going to be met with resistance again? When will you learn that you pathetic humans are no match for the might of a sorceress?" the possessed Rinoa scoffed.

Leon stepped forward with a glare and demanded, "We're not going to stop until Rinoa is free from you so either let Rinoa go, or be prepared to be kicked out of her!"

"Go ahead and try! You will still fail all the same!" Ultimecia taunted before casting an empowered version of Fission Firaga.

Xion and Tifa dodged to the right with a roll while Irvine and Leon dodged to the left in a similar fashion, just barely avoiding the explosive part of the spell. Irvine opened fire, shooting streams of fire at the possessed sorceress, but Ultimecia blocked the attack with a barrier.

Tifa was the next one up and unleashed a ruthless barrage of punches and kicks that Ultimecia barely managed to block with Rinoa's arms and a few small barriers. This made Tifa angry, causing her to continue her barrage at an even faster pace while shouting, "Give me back my cousin you witch!"

Tifa's barrage was soon ended though when Ultimecia sent her flying with an empowered Aeroga spell. Leon was up next and began a series of slashes with the blunt side of his gunblade to avoid harming Rinoa; this was mostly a delay tactic to buy Xion time to perform a specific spell.

_-Flashback (when Irvine opened fire)-_

_Leon was about to attack when Xion grabbed Leon's arm and said, "Wait, before you just rush in there, I have an idea."_

"_I'm all ears" was Leon's response._

"_I recently finished learning a spell that should be able to drag that sorceress from the future out of Rinoa, but I need a few minutes to charge it, so can you buy me some time?"_

_Leon responded, "I should be able to do that much"_

_The two then heard Tifa shout out, "Give me back my cousin you witch!"_

_Xion looked at Leon with a confused look and said, "Rinoa is Tifa's Cousin?"_

_Leon just grunted out, "What? You can't see the resemblance?" before taking Tifa's place after she was sent into the air with an Aeroga spell._

_-End Flashback-_

'_Just three more minutes…' _Xion thought as she focused on her right hand that was now glowing and had ethereal numbers between one and twelve, clock faces, and chain links swirling around it. Xion looked up for a moment and saw Leon barely managing to dodge a Meltdown attack and retaliating with a fireball from the barrel of his gunblade.

'_Two more minutes…'_

Irvine opened fire again but was sent flying back from a Tornado spell. Tifa then took his place and managed to get in a good haymaker to the face, sending the possessed Rinoa flying into a wall. Tifa then pinned Rinoa to the wall before she could recover and shouted, "Did that- did that get through to you, Rinoa?"

Ultimecia/Rinoa just snorted and retorted, "You're just as naïve as before, I already told you that she can't hear you!" Rinoa then threw Tifa back with unexpected force electrocuted Tifa while she was still in midair.

'_One more minute…'_

Leon jumped into the electrifying stream of electricity that Ultimecia was sending towards Tifa and managed to absorb the electrifying magic into his gunblade. Allowing Tifa to fall to the ground, knocked out cold. Rinoa/Ultimecia continued to attempt to electrify Leon even as he landed on the ground while Irvine rushed to Tifa's side and cast a Cure spell on her. Rinoa/Ultimecia then chose to stop the electrifying barrage and fired a spear of ice at Leon, which he dodged by rolling out of the way. Leon then countered by firing a magical bullet out of the barrel of his gunblade made completely out of the pent-up electrical magic it recently absorbed. Rinoa/Ultimecia barely managed to escape the blast by teleporting to the center of the room and was about to fire a second spear of ice at Leon, but was beaten to the punch when Leon spun around and caught her off guard with a second electrical bullet, temporarily paralyzing the sorceress and holding her in place.

Leon then shouted out, "Xion, are you done yet?"

The hand that Xion was focusing her time spell on was now glowing brighter than ever before and the ethereal numbers and clock hands were now spinning around what looked like a glowing gold chain. Xion smiled and shouted, "I just finished!"

Ultimecia cursed inside Rinoa's head, _'Damn, I forgot about that one! What is she up to? Is that time magic that she's focusing into her hand?'_

Her question was quickly answered when Xion was in her face in almost no time and slammed her magic infused hand into Rinoa's chest where her heart should be located. The gold chains then sunk into Rinoa and in theory, traveled through time and ensnared Ultimecia. However, Ultimecia wasn't giving up without a fight and began to struggle and attempt to escape while Xion tried to pull her arm back and drag Ultimecia to the present.

Xion was making little progress was beginning to worry that her plan was beginning to backfire. However, Leon then intervened when he grabbed onto the bit of the chain that was visible and helped Xion pull. Progress was then made, but Ultimecia was still struggling. However, Xion and Leon weren't alone in the effort because Tifa and Irvine joined in on the effort too. Once all four of them shouted and gave an almighty yank on the chain, Rinoa was surrounded by an orb of light that exploded and made the chain to vanish, causing Xion, Leon, Tifa, and Irvine to fall backwards with their eyes closed from the sudden lack of resistance and bright light.

***End Music***

The group opened their eyes a few seconds later to see Rinoa lying down on the ground, unconscious, but still breathing. Xion then looked to the other side of the room and saw a silver haired woman with her hair fixed to shape like horns jutting out to both sides of her head. Her eyes are also an evil yellowish color and she has blue markings on her face and what was not covered by her blood red dress/robe.

Everyone was so fixed on Rinoa that they didn't even notice the evil sorceress on the other side of the room, so Xion took it upon herself to warn them, "Uh, guys, I know you're all worried about Rinoa, but I think you need to take a look at this!"

***Play Succession of Witches***

The three that were already at Rinoa's side looked at where Xion was pointing and saw the sorceress Ultimecia now standing and glaring at the group with a look of complete and total fury.

Ultimecia seethed, "How dare you ruin my plans! I needed that girl as my link to this timeline to complete my Time Compression spell!"

Xion responded, "Well I guess your little plan has been foiled! Now why don't you just make things easier for all of us and come quietly?"

Ultimecia then turned her glare of malice towards Xion and hissed, "Absolutely not! I can still fulfill my plans for Time Compression! All you did was delay the inevitable!"

Tifa entered the argument, "Is that so? By the looks of things it looks like you have been backed into a corner that you can't get out of. You can't beat all four, soon to be five of us all at once."

Ultimecia then grinned evilly and replied, "Who says that I have to take you all on at once? You forget, I am a sorceress, my magical abilities are unmatched! I can do just about anything I want! However, before I get back to my plans to compress time I'll need to destroy you all… one-by-one if necessary."

Ultimecia glared at Xion and said, "I think I'll start with the one that dragged me to this wretched timeline!"

Xion only managed to squeak out a, "What?" before both she and Ultimecia were enveloped in a surge of darkness and teleported elsewhere while Tifa, Irvine, and Leon who was currently holding an unconscious Rinoa shouted out Xion's name in worry.

***End Music***

* * *

When the darkness that enveloped Xion disappeared, Xion found herself standing across from Ultimecia in what looks like a round room with slightly dilapidated walls that had holes poking through at some spots. (The place that Sora fought Dragon Maleficent in KHI)

"We will be able to fight uninterrupted here… prepare to suffer the fate of all those who dare to defy me!" Ultimecia announced as she shrouded herself in a dark aura and glared at Xion.

Xion countered by summoning Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn Keyblades, holding them in her 'ready' position, and shouting, "We'll just see about that!"

* * *

**Author: Ugh, finally!**

**Xion: It took you long enough!**

**Author: I know, I know even I'll admit that this update took too long!**

**Aqua: How much longer will I have to wait until I'm back in this story? I feel so neglected…**

**Ventus: Don't worry Aqua; I'm sure you'll be put back in soon.**

**Aqua: Thanks Ven**

**Author: Anyway, Please review, take a look at the challenge on my profile, and at the very least consider taking it. Slop Doggy was the only guy with enough guts to take it. Sure, he hasn't even reached chapter two of the story, but at least he has enough guts to take the challenge! That alone was enough to put him on my mental list of awesome people.**

**Xion: How many people are on that list? And how many lists do you have?**

**Author: Not many, and the answer to the list question is three. Those lists are the list of awesomeness, the list of cool people, and the list of people I dislike.**

**Ventus: Who's on the list of cool people?**

**Author: The people that take the time to review my stories.**

**Xion: And I'm gonna take a wild guess that the people on the disliked list are flamers and people that annoy you in general.**

**Author: Correct!**

**Aqua: Is there anything else we're supposed to do, or can go home now for the moment?**

**Ventus: I think that's it**

**Author: I agree with Ventus, you can go home now.**

**Xion: Wait! We forgot the daily threat!**

**Author: I chose to skip that today.**

**Xion: Well I'm doing it anyway!**

**Author: Please don't, I already did the review request anyway!**

**Xion: Then I'll do something else! Take the challenge, or I'll shish kabob you on one of my light javelins!**

**Author: *Sigh* Figures… should have known she'd go there… (referring to the challenge, not the light javelin)**


End file.
